Homophobic graffiti removed from wall near Dublin’s Pantibar

Team from business group DublinTown responded and painted over message

Homophobic graffiti was painted on a building close to Pantibar (pictured) in Dublin city centre on Sunday night. File photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times.
Homophobic graffiti was painted on a building close to Pantibar (pictured) in Dublin city centre on Sunday night. File photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times.

Homophobic graffiti painted on a building close to Pantibar in Dublin’s city centre on Sunday night has been removed.

Pantibar owner Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss, posted an image of the graffiti on Twitter on Monday.

It showed the words ‘pedo bar’ painted on the wall of a nearby building on Strand Street Great and an arrow pointing in the direction of the well-known Capel Street gay bar.

“Ironically, I’m sitting here now about to do an online Pride event,” Mr O’Neill said in a subsequent post. “Queer Power!”

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Fine Gael councillor Ray McAdam described the graffiti as “sickening”.

DublinTown, a lobby group for businesses in the city, said a clean-up team attended the area “straight away” after being notified and that the graffiti “has now been removed”.

A Garda spokesman said a report of an act of criminal damage involving graffiti being applied to a building on Sunday night had been received.

“No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing,” he said.

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns is a reporter for The Irish Times