The Hendrick hotel and Alternative Dublin’s street art tour offers a fresh perspective on Dublin 7
“This is one of those instances where the lines between legal and illegal have been blurred for street art in Dublin,” says Conor O’Rourke of artist collective Alternative Dublin, which has teamed up with The Hendrick hotel in Smithfield to organise a tour of street art and graffiti this November 8.
Painted in 2017 by the public art collective Subset, the piece was commissioned by the owner of the house, Vincent O’Donoghue. Since the time it was painted, O’Donoghue has been to court eight times to defend it.
Dublin City Council (DCC) launched a case against Horseboy and two other works of public art by Subset calling it an ‘unauthorised development’. In February, a judge announced that the legal fees were paid and that the dispute was settled. In a judgement seen as historic for street artists in the city, the murals were allowed to remain.
‘Analogue’ by Maser displayed in The Hendrick’s lobby
O’Donoghue commissioned Horseboy as a homage to horse culture in Smithfield. “In my view, all the excitement of Dublin is in the North and it needs to be celebrated. Art should be free and up for everyone to see, it’s not just for your floor or living room wall,” he says.
Our preview of the November 8 tour began at The Hendrick, which dubs itself “Ireland’s first and only street art hotel”, and is this month joining forces with Alternative Dublin to host a celebration of street art in Dublin 7. Other events include a street art coffee morning, tote bag painting and a ‘Drink and Draw’ session, with proceeds going to men’s health charity Movember.
The hotel hosts over 270 works of Irish and international art curated by Dublin artist James Earley, some of whose own pieces are featured alongside others by the likes of Maser, the brains behind a heart-shaped Repeal the 8th mural at Temple Bar’s Projects Arts Centre, and even a piece of wall from the original Windmill Lane recording studio – signed by all four members of U2.
A piece of the wall from the original Windmill Lane recording studio
According to Time Out Magazine, Smithfield is the second-coolest neighbourhood on the planet – ‘a Dublin that refuses to disappear’. The Hendrick, and our tour, feel like they fit right into that.
At a street corner near the hotel, just a few metres from where the Luas tracks meet, a pair of piercing blue eyes follow passers-by from a painted electric box. Shota Kotake’s beautiful rendition of Billy in the Bowl – an 18th century character described as ‘Dublin’s most famous beggar’ – is on one of the many electric boxes that DCC offered up to artists as part of the Dublin Canvas Project.
“Each electric box captures a piece of that area’s history,” says O’Rourke. Billy was born “without half of his body and a blacksmith fashioned him an iron clasp bowl that he could slip into.”
He explains: “Billy was notoriously good looking. He’d always charm the girls that would walk by, and he started to make money out of it. In order to keep up with his new lifestyle, he transformed into the ‘Stoneybatter Strangler’. He would find people walking through the street, slip out of the bowl, wrap around them and render them unconscious.
Billy in the Bowl has been painted on to an electric box in Smithfield
“Eventually, he was caught, punished and humiliated,” O’Rourke says.
Stories and murals like that of Billy in the Bowl seem to find us at every street corner on the tour.
O’Rourke points out that Dublin has more works of graffiti than street art. The former “is mostly comprised of tags or artists’ signatures, and throw ups – the big bubble letter writing – that we can see around big cities,” he explains. “Whereas, street art mostly consists of murals and bigger scale public art projects.”
“Graffiti is usually always illegal, artists never ask permission to do their art, whereas street art is almost always legal,” he continues. “Now, there is some overlap in Dublin as street art can sometimes fall into the illegal territory. As the years go on, if the regulations around street art were to ease, we can see street art taking over and becoming the majority.”
In February, Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin introduced the Public Art Mural (Exempted Development) Bill to the Dáil. The bill seeks to provide exemptions from planning permission for certain categories of public art that has artistic or cultural merit and has the permission of the owner of the building.
“If you’re vesting the distinction about what public art can or cannot get permission for with an administrative or a political body, there will be an element of self-censorship. The more cutting edge elements of public art might not be able to adorn the walls of the city,” says Ó Broin.
“Any public street art is subject to the equality act, so it has to be consistent with the general laws that apply to the state. What I would like to see is a situation where street art is subject to the permission of the owner. We could produce really good art.”
The bill is currently at the first stage in the Dáil.
The street art of a fiddler and flautist outside The Cobblestone pub
Our tour ends fittingly outside The Cobblestone pub, a beloved Smithfield institution that’s home to traditional music. On the wall outside is the longest standing work of street art in the city – it features a fiddler and a flautist.
Anna Tosatto, a student from Como, Italy launched the Muro Arts Festival in Dublin as her thesis project in the summer of 2013. She was responsible for more than 25 murals all over the city, including the one beside the pub which was painted by two Italian street artists.
“In May of 2013, Danilo Bolognini and Giuseppe Tilf would do the mural during the day and go enjoy the live music in The Cobblestone every night. Although the festival saw numerous murals pop up, theirs is the only one that remains – the rest has been removed or stripped down,” says O’Rourke.
“Right outside The Cobblestone, which is responsible for the revival of traditional music, the survival of this mural revives another great Irish tradition – great public art.”
NB: Azmia was a guest of The Hendrick (hendrickdublin.ie). Alternative Dublin and The Hendrick’s street art tour takes place on November 8. Book tickets here or see alternativedublincity.com.