Funferal

Connolly statue defaced at RTS, then cleaned up by activists

The Reclaim the Streets protest in Dublin last Monday – the May Day public holiday – took place at Beresford Place, where the monument to James Connolly is situated. Indymedia has lots of pictures from the event, which included placing a ‘black bloc’-style hood around James Connolly’s face. Some of those present wrote various slogans in chalk on the monument and this was followed, unfortunately, by others vandalising the monument with spray-painted slogans and ‘tags.’
Interestingly, the discussion on Indymedia (which involved some defending the vandalism as ‘appropriating’ Connolly to non-establishment purposes) resulted in a group meeting at the monument yesterday to remove the graffiti seemingly most has now been removed.
For those who don’t know Connolly: the founder of the Irish Labour Party and the Irish Citizen Army, and co-founder of the ITGWU, he took part in the 1916 Easter Rising, was wounded, and was executed by the British army for his part in the rising. The Wikipedia entry for Connolly provides a brief introduction.