Select Image Below To Visit The Photo Gallery: The Mural And The Court Case

Photographed By William Murphy - Select Image To View Photographs

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IT WAS REMOVED

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This photograph, captured in September 2021 on Grantham Street, serves as a digital ghost of a Dublin that no longer exists. At the time, I was documenting the local architecture—specifically the "St Kevin’s Female National Schools 1886" plaque on a nearby red-brick building. Like many Victorian schoolhouses in Dublin 8, it has since been repurposed for modern use, yet the plaque remains a protected piece of the city's heritage.

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However, my presence with a camera provoked an unexpectedly visceral reaction. I was approached by a couple who became aggressively confrontational, accusing me of "promoting pornography." During the height of the pandemic, such on-the-street encounters were common—I had been harangued both for wearing a mask and for not wearing one—but this specific accusation felt bizarre. I wasn't even focused on the mural at the time; I only knew they were gesturing toward the old girls’ school.

It was only recently, while processing my 2020–2022 archive, that a reverse image search revealed the true nature of the friction I had walked into.

The Art and the Accusation

The artwork in question was a piece by Subset, a prominent Irish art collective known for their "Grey Area" projects. Located on the gable wall of Grantham’s Cafe at the corner of Pleasants Place, the mural was an abstract, colourful depiction of two figures in an embrace.

The couple’s hostility likely mirrored the public sentiment surrounding a high-profile court case involving the mural that very month. When Dublin City Council prosecuted Subset for failing to remove the work, Judge Anthony Halpin famously remarked of the image: "I won’t spend too much time working that out. It’s something you would see in Amsterdam."

This judicial swipe at the aesthetic—invoking the imagery of a Red Light District—provided "moral ammunition" to locals. To many, the judge’s personal distaste translated into a belief that the art was inherently lewd. In reality, the legal battle was entirely bureaucratic, centred on planning permission rather than obscenity.

A Tale of Three Murals

The Grantham Street piece was eventually painted over, making my photograph a rare primary record of a lost work. However, its destruction stands in stark contrast to two other iconic Subset pieces that survived the same legal era:

The David Attenborough Mural (Portobello): Though the owner and tenants supported this tribute, the Council initially deemed it an "unauthorised development." In June 2022, following a petition of over 10,000 signatures and significant public outcry, the Council abruptly dropped the case. It remains a landmark on Longwood Avenue today.

The "Horseboy" Mural (Smithfield): A tribute to Smithfield’s horse culture, this piece faced a convoluted legal battle involving a supportive tenant and a dissenting property owner. Like the Attenborough piece, the prosecution was dropped in 2022, leaving the mural in a state of "legal limbo"—unpermitted, yet protected by the Council’s decision to cease hostilities.

The Legacy of the "Grey Area"

The assumption that "to photograph is to endorse" is a constant burden for street photographers. By capturing that mural in 2021, I unknowingly stepped into a flashpoint of a national debate: who truly owns the visual soul of a city?

The friction of that era eventually sparked political change. In early 2023, a Public Art Mural Bill was introduced in the Dáil, aiming to designate non-commercial murals on private property as "exempted development." If passed, this would prevent the Council from suing artists who have the property owner's consent.

My 2021 photograph is a poignant reminder of the "before and after" of this cultural shift. While other murals survived to become landmarks, the Grantham Street piece was a casualty of the battle—a vibrant moment of intimacy that was ultimately erased by a mix of red tape and misplaced moral panic.