Mural removal sparks call for crackdown on derelict buildings
Planners have been urged to crack down on the owners of derelict buildings and empty dishevelled looking retail units, rather than waging war on colourful popular murals.
The chairman of Galway Tidy Towns, Labour Party City Councillor Niall McNelis, says unsightly empty and derelict buildings across the city centre ‘lower the tone’.
The call comes as city planners faced a backlash online for forcing Claddagh Jewellers on Mainguard Street to paint over its renowned and much-loved Beanstalk mural.
Galway City Council ruled the signage at the shop and the beanstalk mural, “by reason of their excessive scale, design, colour scheme and multiplicity of styles, would detract from the visual appearance of the building”.
They also ruled the mural sets an “undesirable precedent” for similar developments. The City Council was backed up by An Bórd Pleanála.
Called ‘Grown in Galway’, the mural by Ruairi O’Byrne was highly praised by Tidy Towns’ judges.
The popular mural depicted Galway scenes with giant beanstalk-type plants decorated with Claddagh rings rising upwards towards an electric blue sky.
A survey by Galway City Tribune two years ago, when the mural was first under threat, found a whopping 87% of respondents in favour of allowing it to stay.
After nearly three years battling with the Council, management of Claddagh Jewellers painted over the mural this week to comply with planning. “We are very sad to see our beautiful mural forcefully removed,” management said in a statement.
Cllr McNelis, a rival jeweller, said in some instances the City Council is rigorous in its application of planning enforcement but this is not the case with other buildings, which have been derelict and unsightly for a long period.
Our Facebook page was flooded with hundreds of people reacting to the decision of planners who forced the removal of the colourful street-art from the side of the building.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune