Area ‘afflicted with graffiti’ especially the word Evoke

THE COUNTY and city of Dublin has been afflicted by a noticeable increase in graffiti in recent weeks and in particular by the word ‘Evoke’.

This is what councillors were told at this week’s Tallaght council meeting.

At the meeting Councillor Mick Duff (Ind) called on the Council to carry out a graffiti survey in the Tallaght area with the intention of having it removed.

“A journalist contacted me recently and said ‘have you driven up the Katharine Tynan Road recently? Did you notice the back of Belgard . . . and up at Fettercairn?’,” said Cllr Duff. Once this was drawn to his attention Cllr Duff thought to himself, “that shouldn’t be there.”

Graffitti with the word ‘Evoke’ appears to be increasing in many areas.

“Evoke, whatever Evoke is, but Evoke is growing, it’s back again . . . and it’s on every lamppost . . .  The utility boxes are again being targeted, they look awful,” said Cllr Duff.

He also said that the utility companies have people employed to have the boxes repainted in the event of graffiti being sprayed on them. “If we could invoke that and get that done?” he asked the Council.

Cllr Duff also mentioned “the movement” that is the Tidy Towns and said they will lose points if there is graffiti in their area.

“Tallaght always lost points . . . it’s something we need to eliminate . . . in Tallaght South and Tallaght central it’s endemic. I would like to see a combined effort whether it is with the tidy district groups or with the community itself or with probation services. We can’t just give into them because they’ll destroy the place if we don’t [do],” he said.

Councillor Charlie O’Connor (FF) said that “graffiti shows a neglect of an area – it creates a bad impression about a particular area.”

With the upcoming elections he said that “politically motivated graffiti . . . a bit of that might turn up in the next 46 days and it’s important that it’s dealt with.” He felt that “political stuff or really bad stuff” should be dealt with straight away.

However, Cllr O’Connor did sound one positive note.

The word Evoke on an ESB box and a sign on Katharine Tynan Road

“Not to be, I hope, not to be offensive, but whoever up my way was painting graffiti depicting exaggerated body parts, I’m glad that’s stopped,” he said.

After Cllr Teresa Costello (FF) had gotten over Cllr O’Connor’s

“exaggerated body parts” intervention she added that she thought that graffiti “lowers the morale in an area. It’s good to get rid of it as soon as it becomes visible.”

The Chair, Cllr Louise Dunne (SF) said that the probation service had come out previously and put up murals on walls that had previously been the target of graffiti.

“People who are graffiti-ing don’t tend to go near those walls, they’re left. There’s one for example in Brookview estate, a mural. I think is there twenty years and I don’t think it’s ever been sprayed with graffiti,” said Cllr Dunne. She also that in cities abroad “along the tram lines they allow murals to be painted and they’re never touched.”

Cllr Dunne was also mindful of the need to deter people who engage in graffiti. “If we can put in different schemes to try to deter people, and especially yer man Evoke, I always wonder every time I see his name or her name appear,” she said.

Senior Executive officer in the Environment, Public Realm and Water section of South Dublin County Council (SDCC), Sharon Conroy replied that SDCC are disheartened any time they see graffiti. “We are aware that it is everywhere,” she said.

Ms Conroy alluded to the challenges the council faces in dealing with graffiti.

“Sometimes where we do get walls painted and it’s all gone, within hours or days it’s done again and people don’t believe that we did go out and sort that, which is very disheartening for our staff as well,” she said.

Ms Conroy agreed that the murals are effective but said that they could not be put everywhere, including the poles.

She said that the Environmental Awareness section in the council work with Dublin Canvass, the social credits schemes and with Tidy Towns  groups.

The council does not have permission to paint the utility boxes, she added.

Ms Conroy has said that she has arranged to meet with the ESB around their memorandum of understanding with SDCC and she will then

meet with the other utility providers. “That’ll sort of be our basis as to where we can go and what we might be able to agree in the next one [memorandum of understanding],” she said.

Ms Conroy said she will update the ACMs regarding the survey over the next few months and what plans the council have put in place.

Cllr Duff asked could a contact detail for each utility company be provided to the councillors “so that when something arises of a large scale on a utility box that we could make a direct representation and ask them to paint it out.”

Cllr Duff’s motion was agreed to by the other Councillors.