Many of you would have seen a recent post on broadsheet.ie, entitled ‘Everyone’s A Critic’. The topic was the manner in which Dublin City Council were placing art gallery information displays alongside pieces of street art, which were extremely sarcastic in tone.
Image via broadsheet.ie
Image via broadsheet.ie
The irony of this of course is that Wood Quay, and the Dublin Civic Offices, could be one of the greatest acts of vandalism in Dublin’s history. Viking Dublin was literally destroyed in the name of progress in the late 1970’s and early 80’s, in an act of wreckless cultural vandalism.
Thousands marched to save Wood Quay, but it just wasn’t enough.
Some Dubliners haven’t forgotten.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Reblogged this on My MS… my life… and commented:
Yes indeed!
‘In the name of progress’ is rarely progress and I can only imagine what was destroyed in the name of financial gain. History cannot be recreated, simple as… Great blog post!
Reblogged this on Another Irishman's Diary and commented:
I’d not seen the broadsheet.ie posts referred to, but nice commentary!
that is great…
Im amazed at one level that someone in DCC had the imagination to do this. On the otherhand the rebuttal is spot on.
Beautifully presented. Game set and match.
[…] The Greatest Vandalism In Dublin’s History? (ComeHereToMe) […]
Wood Quay was insensitive in the extreme, an enormous percentage of the recent built fabric of Dublin is visually and socially awful – Dublin City Council’s planning office are to blame. That said, I have to admit I like DCC’s response to that useless, crappy, ugly, unoriginal and ultimately expensive fourth-rate graffiti that is just plain selfish.
So the Ikue graffito is no work of art, but getting snotty about graffiti isn’t the same as combating it.
Spot on. On both points.
Spot on to Gregory that is.
brilliant
shared with the Waterford Viking Reenactment Group
The graffiti should be left alone. It can only improve the appearance of those monstrous buildings.
Wood Quay was covered in concrete by corruption and small minded political ignorance. It’s says a lot for the type of people who inhabit Wood Quay that their solution to graffiti is to resort to corner boy slagging. Whoever stuck up the reply deserves a reward. The entire complex should be dismantled and the rubble stashed in the homes of Bertie, Ray and the rest of the crooks.
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I’m really astonished by the level of graffiti that has accumulated in the city centre in recent times. To me it just shows the complete disrespect that so-called tag ‘artists’ (what a misnomer!) hold for their city and for fellow citizens. In my mind they are no better than the cultural vandals that destroyed the Wood Quay site. The City Council is regularly pilloried for the dereliction and destruction in the city but in my view the real culprits are property owners..people who buy historic buildings but refuse to maintain them. Look at any street…maybe the shops are in use but the upper floors are generally ignored. You have trees growing out of buildings, windows crying out for some paint or a window cleaner, rooms open to the elements and historic features rotting. The Council certainly continues to have a poor record in managing the city (in my view) and there is certainly a lot they could do, but those who own buildings or feel that they have liberty to ‘express themselves’ all over someone else’s property are just as remiss.
All in all the greatest responsibility lies with those who cynically take the money for the job of running the city and then vandalise it. The worst corruption is not those with 5 euro spray cans but those with budgets of millions of taxpayers money. They are not equal or just as bad as each other. There’s a vast gulf between the two. For the last few years DCC have spent millions trying to kill Smithfield Horse Fair. Hundreds of thousands have been spent on Garda overtime in the last year. It makes no difference that they have been told that legally they can’t stop it. They just decide that their bloody minded opinion takes precedence over anything else. Had the same gang of councillors only got spray cans the city would be much better off. Their “tags” are everywhere: on the peeling street furniture, the broken footpaths, the derelict buildings, the visionless thinking, their imitation short sighted “monkey see, monkey do” cultural imports and most of all that monstrosity on Wood Quay.
Could commenters please clarify what exactly they feel ought to have been ‘saved’ at Wood Quay? Archaeological excavation does not ‘save’ anything. It collects evidence and destroys layers of habitation. A huge amount of artefacts were uncovered which have still not been fully recorded. Laying aside the fact that wood quay would be unknown without the development, what would they like to see on the site instead and where would they like the civic offices to be built?
A large amount of artifacts were also left buried due to the time limit given to the excavation. If this find had been discovered anywhere else in Europe, the excavation would have been accommodated to completion and a museum or public viewing platform would have been incorporated into the existing design of the new offices, so that everything from this hugely important historical discovery could be shared with the world. But being Ireland, where no one really gives a shit about anything, particularly our heritage (because it’s essentially British), the corporation just ploughed on, filling in everything that was left with concrete and they couldn’t even be bothered to catalogue and display what was excavated. It’s shameful.
How about they use some of the people on the dole to clean the Graffiti? Makes sense !!
I can’t wait until one day you can’t afford to feed your family xxx
Im sure when you lose your job you’ll be the first one down to volunteer.
The offices on Wood Quay not only buried the site of what is the origin of Dublin but blocked the view of of Christ Church Cathedral. Had “St” Patricks first crap been discovered on the hill and if it was a Roman Catholic cathedral at the top I somehow don’t think we’d have the “civic” offices there now.
The Youtube footage brought back (faint) memories, I walked in the 1979 protest as a 7 year old viking. I can’t see myself needless to say. Very clear shot of future President Robinson in a red coat about 30 secs from the end.
Lessons of Wood Quay from the Friends of Medieval Dublin
http://fmd.ie/carrickmines/041017-lessons-of-wood-quay.html
The graffiti is in the same nature as the DCC’s nature. If anything the graffiti resembles the consideration of the DCC, I’m not talking about the aesthetic abilities of the graffiti artist but consideration of both parties are of the same. The graffiti has the mentality of the DCC and resembles the same care the DCC has taken, so, in some way the graffiti might as well be there
how about they leave the graffiti up? its not offensive and is reasonably done. the dcc should have places for kids to express themselves like this or skate etc. what precisely qualifies sam stephenson as valid artistic expression and disqualifies the tags other than the usual classist snobbery and its attendantly narrow idea of what art does?
having said that, i do like the offices, but they are insensitive to their surroundings – christ church etc. and what was the damn point in designing and executing the central bank only to destroy its power as archetecture by railings around the steps? PHILESTINES!
Dublin in the 70’s looks a bit like Cork today! It’s a shame that the view of Christchurch from the keys is destroyed but ‘progress’ marches on over the people’s toes
Phase 1 was Stephenson….
“Dublin Corporation Offices at Wood Quay – Phase 1 (1976) – The remains of Viking Dublin were discovered during the construction of this building. Despite protests to save the site, construction went ahead. The buildings were known as The Bunkers because of their severe appearance.”
Developers did the same recently in Drogheda when building Scotch Hall, a new shopping centre, apparently they found an ancient burial ground with over a dozen body, dating back years before they thought anyone lived in the are, then it all went quiet and the shopping centre went up as planned, nothing more was mentioned about the burial ground. Of course the second phase of the shopping centre has sat unfinished and derelict for 4 years since the recession started, so this historic find was destroyed in favour of rusting metal and broken walls. Much like the rest of the country, left scared by greed. Nothing will ever change here.
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