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How Dublin became a magnet for street art

Nicola Brady
Nicola Brady

It's not every day that your attention is drawn to a car park. At first glance, the lot next to Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre seems as monotonous as any other. Above the entrance sign, windows are boarded up, the red bricks on the wall a little mismatched.

But one thing is sure to catch your eye. An abstract mural, painted in vibrant reds and blues, depicts a woman reclining alluringly on her side. It’s a cool piece — one that makes you stop in your tracks and snap a quick pic for your Instagram.

But it’s only the beginning. Walk through the entrance, past the graffiti-tagged barrier and the walls dripping in peeling paint, and you’ll uncover a wonderland of street art. There’s a different piece at every turn, from basic tags to mammoth murals that beggar belief (one even requires 3D glasses).

Amble around the square (which is, oddly enough, devoid of cars most of the time) and you’ll find pieces shrouding every spare inch of space. There are abstract, Eighties-style geometric blocks creeping along a black concrete wall. A giant warthog, with angular snorts creeping out of his snout, stands tens of feet in the air, with coils of barbed wire topping the wall over his head.

Behind all of this, the striking spires of John’s Lane Church stand tall alongside the back of local houses and low apartment blocks.

It’s not just at the Tivoli, either. Over the road, the exterior of the bar Drop Dead Twice is emblazoned with jagged, bumblebee-hued shards, and a little further down the street a Yoda-style figure urges us to Stop Wars. At the end of Francis Street, the hipster joint Two Pups Coffee is a beautiful muddle of pastels, the main door adorned with a Bowie-esque lightning bolt.

(Nicola Brady)
(Nicola Brady)

So why is this little corner of Dublin such a magnet for street art?

It began 11 years ago, when the All City Jam took over the space behind the Tivoli for an international graffiti event. The brainchild of the folks behind All City (a record label and graffiti paint store), this mini-festival has drawn top street artists from Ireland and all around the world, including Dublin artists Maser and James Earley.

Artists gather to paint (and party), with the resulting art left up for the remainder of the year. But if you want to see it for yourself, you’ll have to be quick. Plans have been approved for the Tivoli to be demolished to make room for a new aparthotel complex, complete with a new outdoor theatre space. That means the street art lining the current car park will cease to exist.

“From our standpoint, it’ll be a great loss to the Irish graffiti scene,” says Kev from All City. “There have been so many great walls painted there, as well as international and Irish collaborations. There is so much history soaked into the bricks.”

3D glasses are required for the huge face (Nicola Brady)
3D glasses are required for the huge face (Nicola Brady)

That legacy hasn’t been ignored. An Bord Pleanála, the Irish planning appeals board, decreed that the art must be preserved through professional photography before it’s all knocked to the ground.

“I would never look at it as a bad thing but acknowledge and be grateful for what people got to use it for,” says Finbar McHugh, an artist whose piece stands underneath the main entrance sign of the Tivoli car park.

“If you’ve painted graffiti, it’s funny — you don’t attach to the pieces too much, because your painting might be gone in 24 hours. It’s a very good lesson in creativity, to be able to let go. I suppose everyone has to learn to let go in life. Space is more important than holding on to the past.”

I crossed paths with Finbar back in June — he was working on his piece as I walked home. It was a few days before the All City Jam and, vapid as I am, I did what most would do — took a picture that went straight on my Instagram and walked on by. A few hours later, I saw that a friend of the artist had tagged him into my photo.

(Nicola Brady)
(Nicola Brady)

I felt oddly voyeuristic — I’d put the picture up without his knowledge, after all. Luckily, when I admitted as such a few months later, he didn’t mind.

“You get tagged in some very interesting things, and have a good laugh sometimes!” he says. Does he mind when people use his work on social media? “When people take a snap and put something up, it’s giving them their chance to connect with something. It’s really nice when you see that, and how people interact with it.”

And interact they do. When I walked around, I spotted one girl doggedly making her way around the car park in order to get the perfect shot. Her friend trailed behind her, snapping away as she struck pose after nonchalant pose in front of various brightly coloured walls. In fairness, I was making my friend strike those very same poses so I could get some shots of my own.

A woman walked by, car keys in hand, muttering “feckin’ eejits” as she passed. You can’t win them all.

Details: Dublin

Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Dublin from £66 return. New hotel The Devlin (thedevlin.ie) opens on November 7, and has more than 150 pieces of original art, curated by James Earley. Rates from £114.