Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Are you old enough to remember when graffiti art on gable ends of businesses in Galway drew the wrath of planners at City Hall?

Nowadays, murals are popping up everywhere. Walls in Woodquay, the Latin Quarter, back the West, and University of Galway, all boast street art, or graffiti, that has been recently painted.

The latest one, Galvia, at the gable of Monaghan’s Centra, at Raven’s Terrace, even involved a collaboration between the City Council’s Arts Office, the shop owner, and Sufek West Murals.

But murals weren’t always welcomed. And it’s not that long ago that graffiti art used to promote business was frowned upon by officialdom.

Battlelines were drawn in 2013, when spoilsport Council planners and An Bord Pleanála ordered the removal of a mural on Claddagh Jewellers on Mainguard Street.

It depicted Galway scenes, with giant beanstalks decorated with Claddagh rings rising towards a blue sky. It divided opinion, as art tends to do. But planners were united against it – they ruled it would “detract from the visual appearance of the building”.

And, laughable as it might seem now, they also ruled it would “set an undesirable precedent”.

The Council targeted other murals, too, such as the ‘two legs’ at Premoli shoe shop on William Street.

That policy has apparently now been quietly binned.

Galway’s European Capital of Culture sister city in 2020, Rijeka, was big on graffiti, and perhaps attitudes towards murals in Croatia filtered into the mindset of Galway officials during exchange visits.

But whether you like murals or not, and whether you are comfortable with the recent proliferation of them on the city’s streetscape, can we all agree that Claddagh Jewellers and its beanstalk were badly treated?