Few art critics (even the most stuffy, hidebound and be-monocled) would likely deny the legitimacy of graffiti as a contemporary urban art form. Those that remain ambivalent or unconvinced, however, need look no further than the mean streets of Limerick for vibrant and provocative proof of the form's worth.
The below graffito, for example, was discovered some time ago in an alley off Clontarf Place. The camera phone used to capture it does not really do the creation justice, but the image still hints at the "street art" riches that surround us:
Graffiti cannot, of course, be spellchecked, so perhaps the agitating artist/author can be forgiven for three misspelled words in a four word sentence. By "Laural [sic] Hill" he/she presumably means "Laurel Hill": a reputable and ever so slightly swishy (by Limerick standards) girls' secondary school. You can decipher (and marvel at) the rest of the message yourselves…1
Other Limerick gems seen (but not photographed) recently are:
"Project is Gay": Discovered written (neatly) in chalk on the wall of the Limerick School Project (O'Connell Ave). The creator in question obviously felt that the alternative education on offer was suspiciously "fancy"…
"Shitty Pants": Scrawled on the wall of a butcher's in Little Catherine St. The notable thing about this graffito was that it somehow suggested it had been created (spontaneously) by someone on their way to work. It just had that quality. How better to express the jaded crankiness one often feels on work mornings than scribbling "shitty pants" on a butcher's wall?
Finally, while I'd never dream of encouraging anyone to graffiti/vandalise an existing "public" image, I can't say there'd be too many tears shed in this household if the below horror (advertising the "Strand" development) was…er…amended:
A conservative (yet "fashionable") young couple, stand outside Brown Thomas (!) looking confidently to their bright, self-satisfied future.
We're gonna need a bigger sick bag people…
More from the Limerick Graffiti Archive soon.
- Incidentally, the text beside it seems to read "Clements have no pants". "Clements" being the crappy hole of a secondary school where I was incarcerated for several years. [back]
Quite obviously, the fannies of Laurel Hill have been hideously impugned by some tremendous Clements oik who hasn’t been left next nor near them and, frankly, isn’t in a position to form an opinion.
And knows he never will be.
“If only I’d gone to Ard Scoil”, I can hear him anguishedly cry.
March 21st, 2007 at 11:48 amI’m afraid that I do remain unconvinced and although a trip to Limerick might be an attractive prospect I can think of better reasons for going there than inspecting the graffiti… However, I must admit that graffiti can be witty: I remember once seeing a poster proclaiming “Jesus Saves”. Somebody had scrawled underneath “He wouldn’t on my salary!” When Nicky Kelly was wrongly imprisoned for alleged involvement in the Sallins Train Robbery in the 1970’s there was a campaign for his release which included posters with the words “Free Nicky Kelly”. I remember seeing one such poster in Harcourt Street to which somebody had added “…with every packet of Kellogg’s cornflakes!”
And then there are the pretentious classical efforts which I suppose show that not all graffiti writers are semi-literate: “Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni” (Beam me up Scottie) and my favourite: “Vici, Veni, VD”
March 21st, 2007 at 1:54 pmcopernicus, You’re probably right about the culprit and his frustrations.
Still, as bad as Clements was it had one big advantage: being located smack bang next door to the girl’s school in question. This allowed for plenty of opportunities for spotting, hanging around trying to look cool etc, etc. Other than that it was total cack.
Ard-Scoil alumni are pains in the hole though (present company excluded). Put 2 of them together in a room and one’s smug-o-meter will explode as they gratuitously relive memories of Blackboard Jungle triumphs.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that the “Ray D’Arcy-a-like� on the “Strand� poster is an Ard Scoil old boy. He looks so delighted with himself.
March 21st, 2007 at 2:01 pmIthaca, I wouldn’t really consider scrawled (misspelled) text about “fannys” the apogee of the form!
I love a lot of the abstract/intricate designs you often see on walls under flyovers or beside railway tracks. Areas of urban decay or “dead” spaces seem the perfect and appropriate canvas for graffiti art.
Barcelona remains the most graffiti-heavy city I’ve been to. Some of the stuff one finds there (in the kind of areas mentioned above) can be really interesting. Alas you also see plenty of uninspiring, scribbled, “X was ‘ere” type messages on otherwise impressive old buildings. It’d be hard to defend that as anything other than vandalism.
Up near Parc Guell, where the anarcho-squatters roam free, I photographed a classic bit of political graffiti: “Tourist you are the Terrorist”. It made me laugh…though this was not (presumably) the intention.
March 21st, 2007 at 2:23 pmFrom what I remember of the agonies of teendom, I’d say Clements situation was a mixed blessing for the spotty runts incarcerated there under the Redemtorist jackboot.
You refer of course to Ard Scoil’s acquisition of not one but two Blackboard Jungle minibuses, which were regularly processed through Limerick in Roman Triumph as the peasantry doffed their caps and tugged their forelocks to the gilded Ard Scoilean praetors.
No doubt, much more detail will be forthcoming at my brother’s wedding on Saturday where Ard Scoil alums will be much in evidence. How wonderful.
March 21st, 2007 at 2:34 pmBy the way, how many Blackboard Jungle minibuses does Clements have?
And on the subject of Parc Guell, the champagne socialistic origins of the average anarcho-syndicalist squatter rather provoke the retort - “Terrorist, you are the tourist!”.
They don’t like it up ‘em, of course.
March 21st, 2007 at 2:36 pmNone…*cough*…
But we did save up enough Dawn Dairy tokens to get a new ghetto blaster for the music hall. It had Dynamic Bass Boost function ‘n’ all.
Or, if you prefer, “Anarcho-syndicalist squatters, you have scaby fannys!”.
March 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pmAnyone remember Murt from UCG?
March 21st, 2007 at 4:10 pmBy all accounts he loved tits.
I found my favourite ever piece of graffiti on a desk at my secondary school. It read:
“Johnny Rotten died for our sins”.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:12 pmM Kahn is Bent
March 21st, 2007 at 6:47 pmfoolhardy, don’t recall “Murt” and his penchant for boobs. Where was said piece of graffiti located? I remember that the gent’s toilets in the library were good hunting grounds for such pithy messages. Any good graffiti in Crete or is it all Greek to you?
March 21st, 2007 at 6:50 pmAh, yes. The reference sailed o’er my head at first but thanks to good ol’ Google I’m conflabbered no more.
March 21st, 2007 at 6:56 pmFascinating follow up there from the Criminal Law journals. It appears the legend M. Kahn is bent was actually a defence plea of provokation from M. Kahn’s killer (in which case M. Kahn was bent over me at the time of his death would more properly have been the case).
Irish angle - Lord Diplock, the justice in the M. Kahn is bent case was the man after whom the notorious Diplock courts in Northern Ireland were named.
In which case, Lord Diplock is Bent.
March 21st, 2007 at 7:33 pmThe person in the slogan is M Kahn, but the person who was killed by young Camplin was one Mohammed Lal Khan - quite a difference as one appears to be Jewish and the other was clearly a Muslim probably of Pakistani origin. I hope that I am not contributing to an interminable international feud by pointing this out…
March 21st, 2007 at 10:42 pmOn what level does M. Kahn of the north circular road London “appear to be Jewish”?
It’s just a name on a railway bridge. Mohammed Lal Kahn, who was alleged to be “bent” by his dispatcher, relying on a plea of provokation, seems to fit the description. It’s a reasonable surmise based on solid research.
It’s understandable that Mohammed’s detractors might not feel up to painting his full name in giant letters while suspended over the side of a railway bridge above the busy North Circular Road.
“Quite a difference” indeed.
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:38 amI believe that Kahn is not an uncommon Jewish surname, but coorct me if I am wrong. The name of the man who was killed was Khan not Kahn. Khan (not Kahn) is a very common name in Pakistan.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 amGood points all.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:24 amMy favourite graffiti was here in the Netherlands on a bridge I used to cycle under every day. It simple said ‘What about sheep?’ A very pertinent question I thought - and you know what, I never really found an answer.
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 amOh man…that is classic. The funniest thing I’ve read or heard this week. I too wish I knew the answer. It’s probably quite profound.
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:14 amDo you remember the chorus in Handel’s ‘Messiah’ that goes “All we like sheep…”
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:10 pmfústar,
murt was to be found in the (perhaps imaginary) land of the tits.
Although clearly in thrall with mammarian protuberances, he was also something of a rock music fan as suggested by his stylised scrawling of “murtallica”
“what about sheep” has a ring of “will someone think of the children” about it, or am I wrong?
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:37 pmfústar,
re Greek graffiti, there’s plenty about, but as they say in these here parts “it’s all Chinese to me”
Anything in English is of the “fuck the pigs” variety.
There was an article in the Guardian/CiF recently on this very topic which I can’t/am too lazy to find.
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 pmThere were some nice examples in the comments section, including a latin translation of “beam me up scotty”
I know nothing about Murt but perhaps it was small songbirds that he was interested in rather than mammaries…
There was an epidemic of ‘Kilroy was here’ graffiti in the 1970’s. Nobody knew who Kilroy was. He seems to have gone somehere else…
There were also the ‘….rules OK!’graffiti. I remember ‘Dame Vera Lynn rules OK!’ sprayed on the plinth of the Archbishop Plunkett statue in Kildare Street. My favourite of this genre was the admittedly un-PC ‘lesdyxia rusel KO!’
March 22nd, 2007 at 5:08 pmyou might be right there Ithaca, although I doubt it.
kilroy has rather interesting origins I seem to remember. Something to do with ship building.
just found this on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_Was_Here
March 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 pma friend of mine has been compiling a collection of the crappest graffiti he can find around Cardiff. My favourite being ‘David williams is a small cok waka!’ (sic). Which , i believe, is Welsh for ‘Twat’. A small twat.
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 pmI think i have the ’scabby fannys’ second album somewhere. It wasn’t as good as the first, but by then, people had moved on to new wave anyway.
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 pmA very interesting history indeed. Particularly enjoyed this bit:
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:19 pmA most worthy project, and one I may try and replicate here. Thanks for the emailed pics by the way. I’ll shove them up on the next graffiti post.
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 pm“Anyone remember Murt from UCG?
By all accounts he loved tits.”
Well, mostly by his own account. It was more or less the only thing he had to say for himself. Rather pathetically, he spawned a few attempts at imitation by others with “funny” names and peculiar anatomical obsessions, but these thankfully never took off.
The grafitti in university toilet stalls was often pretensious, but occasionally very funny. I am sad to say that such grafitti as appears in the law library is not up to the standard of mid-90’s UCG.
March 25th, 2007 at 12:03 amI once had a plastic pencil case in primary school adorned with a picture of Kilroy and the phrase ‘wot, no pencils?’
Why a 1980s pencil case would be improved by adding a joke from the 1940s about rationing I can’t say.
The lid did slide off and could be used to rule straight lines in red biro. So it was still a good pencil case.
March 25th, 2007 at 5:44 amIn the toilets of the much missed Carpenters Arms in Aberdare, South Wales (now Rasputins Vodka Bar) was the legendary line ‘Kurt Cobian shot his brian’. Read it carefully!
March 30th, 2007 at 3:07 pmOr as Ivy Tilsley might have put it “Kurt Cobian shot our brian”.
March 31st, 2007 at 9:47 pmnone of that is real graffiti and just gives a bad name.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:28 pmNonetheless it is still graffiti (and it seemed pretty ‘real’ to me). I never claimed this was a celebration of the best the art form has to offer. Far from it!
That being the whole point and all…
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:35 pm