Graffiti vandals target 14th century building

Date Published: 25-Sep-2009

STAFF arriving for work at the city’s most historic building received a rude awakening yesterday when they discovered that graffiti ‘artists’ had despoiled one of its historic walls overnight in what has been described as an act of wanton vandalism.

Gardai are trawling through CCTV footage from the city centre in a bid to discover the identity of the culprit or culprits who climbed up a wall on Abbeygate Street before spray painting the rear wall of Lynch’s Castle.

The building, which hosts a branch of the Allied Irish Bank, is the oldest surviving mansion in the city and dates back to about 1320.

Gardai at Mill Street Station received a report relating to the incident as soon as workers began to arrive in the area yesterday morning and soon began checking surveillance footage after carrying out a forensic examination at the scene.

“Obviously, we want to have this graffiti removed as soon as possible,” said AIB branch manager Clar Grogan yesterday. “It is awful that this has happened to such a historic building and we are going to try to get it cleaned. Obviously, we are going to have to get proper, professional advice in relation to cleaning such historic walls.

“We noticed it ourselves as soon as we came in, first thing this morning. For people to claim to have an interest in art and culture to do this is hugely disappointing. We actually don’t know how they managed to climb up on that wall to do this, but the CCTV footage should help us.”

The building…