Council wrong to rip down yarnbomb
IT was ‘ wrong’ for council workers to rip down the yarnbomb erected by local ICA members at the Market Square on St Patrick’s Eve, a senior official has admitted.
Engineer Mr Vincent Toner said that the yarnbomb had been removed for health and safety reasons due to high winds and the fear that people would pull down the pieces on St Patrick’s Day.
The ripping down of the yarn bomb was highlighted by Cllr Anne Campbell who explained that the yarnbomb display, which represented three years of work by local ICA guilds, had been erected for International Women’s Day.
‘It’s my understanding that a crew from the council took down the pieces of handmade art that the ladies had put up and when some of the ladies asked about it they were told that they did not having planning permission,’ she said.
She said that the ladies had received permission to have the yarn bomb in place up to St Patrick’s Day and it was taken down on March 16th,
‘Members of the ICA are really appalled,’ she said. ‘Not only were the council ripping down the yarn bomb and stuffing it into plastic bags and citing the fact that they had no planning permission.’
She noted that the ICA had been approached about doing something similar to the installation for the Fleadh in Drogheda, and Dundalk was actually the first town in the country to have an ICA yarn bombing.
Cllr Mark Dearey supported her call for an explanation of what had happened describing the removal of the ICA’s installation as ‘incredibly heavy handed’ and an example of ‘officialdom gone mad’.
He said the yarn bombing as ‘ beautiful, uplifting and inspiring’ and an example of what the Market Square was for. dOne of the objectives for the Square when it was refurbished was that it was to be used for public art and this hadn’t happened, he said.
Engineer Mr Vincent Toner accepted that a ‘major mistake’ was made and the ICA should have been contacted.
‘We were wrong that we didn’t contact the ICA,’ he said.
He explained that there were very strong winds at the time and the overseer had deemed it unsafe. It was felt it was a health and safety issue as the material was hanging down and there was concern that people were going to jump up and pull it down.