More than 40,000 people have signed a petition against a Dublin City Council order that a massive mural showing a gay couple embracing must be removed. Artist Joe Caslin painted The Claddagh Embrace on the side of a building in Dublin’s city centre, as a “poignant representation of same sex love in the city”. He received permission from the building’s owners to do so. On May 22 Ireland will vote introducing civil same-sex marriage. However Dublin City Council has now ordered it be removed, claiming it breaches planning laws. A petition on Change.org is urging the Council not to buckle under pressure and to allow the mural to remain. “The building owners have given consent for the mural to be placed there, there was no building, simply a paper mural being erected on the side of a building, this should not be a planning matter, as many of the buildings in the area also dawn murals.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 25th April 2015 - 10:29am