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The front of The George after the graffiti was wiped clear at 11.15am TheJournal.ie
TheJournal.ie
GARDAÍ HAVE LAUNCHED an investigation after one of Dublin’s oldest and best known gay bars was defaced with homophobic graffiti this morning.
News of the vandalism carried out on the front of The George pub on George’s Street first emerged shortly after 10am this morning.
However, the photo showing the graffiti was originally taken by Twitter user Gary Shaw at roughly 6.20am, some four hours previous.
Chalk had been used to cover the front of the premises with homophobic words and Nazi symbols.
The graffiti was subsequently wiped clear from the walls of the pub.
Manager of The George Darragh Flynn said staff were “shocked” by what happened but insisted that the bar will be remaining open to celebrate the second anniversay of the marriage equality referendum.
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“We are shocked and disheartened to see our building vandalised, especially with the anniversary of the equality vote this weekend. At times like these our community comes together in support like it always does, and we won’t let this ruin us celebrating this weekend’s anniversary,” Flynn said.
Local area business group Dublin Town was notified and a cleaning group was dispatched to remove all trace of the graffiti after 11am.
“We have staff on seven days a week to deal with things like this,” a spokesman for Dublin Town told TheJournal.ie.
We let the management in the Mercantile Group know (the entity which owns The George) and we have a cleaning crew down there now.
It’s understood that The George has a sophisticated CCTV system in place covering both its front and the laneway adjacent to the pub entrance.
“Gardaí are investigating an incidence of suspected criminal damage which was reported to us this morning at a premises on George’s Street,” a Garda spokesperson told TheJournal.ie.
Inquiries are ongoing. No arrests have yet been made.
Flynn also thanked the public for their kind wishes follwoing the incident.
“We would like to now focus on the positives of today, that one homophobic act has resulted in an overwhelming amount of messages of solidarity and offers of assistance. It has truly brightened our hearts to receive such love and support,” he said.
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@Just Me: Accidentally gave you a thumbs up, sod The Journal’s new format that stops me taking it back with a red one! As for ‘a bit of chalk’ and its supposed harmlessness-have you ever seen the film of Brownshirts in the ’30s painting ‘Juden’ on shop windows- that bit of paint didn’t lead to anything, did it?- Moron!
@Honeybadger197: this news story would encourage the type of scrouts who did this. They got their 5 mins of fame, should’ve just cleaned it off and left it at that. Nobody was hurt and if anybody is offended by what 1 moron can say or write in chalk they need to toughen up.
@John Doe: Ah yes, the old “Shut up and keep your head down” ploy. That worked so well back in the 30s. Thanks for the well-meant advice. I’d much rather be in your face when it comes to defending minorities.
@….: Dot’s or whatever you go by, I have only one account. but if you are interested I can point to a few on here as you describe, with multiple accounts.
@booby sandwiches: Ah Tommy Mc Donagh, Paddy Pearse, Dane, Endathegreat, etc etc etc, I’ve heard of the man with a thousand faces, but you’re definitely the yoke with a thousand names. The next time you’re banned, come back with a more suitable name that matches your personality, DUMBO.
@Deborah Behan: One dead, 23 injured as car driven into crowd. 27 comments.
4 children murdered and tortured, 10 comments.
Roadside blast kills 11. 9 comments.
Someone writes in chalk, nobody hurt. 86 comments. hmm does that sound like faux outrage to you.
@Just Me: you shinners know all about faux outrage, you and your ilk live for it. in typical fascist shinner manner you are trying to dictate what people care about.
@booby sandwiches: Talking of fascist’s Dumbo, Was’nt your blueshirt party founded by the fascist Eoin ‘Duffy, who marched his fellow blueshirts off to fight for the other fascist Franco aided by the great fascist’s Hitler and Mussolini. But in typical blueshirt cowardly fashion, instead of fighting O’Duffy hid in his room permanently drunk.Franco send him and the rest of the blueshirts home in disgrace. Now I don’t want to hear, but,but,but, stutter,stutter,stutter. Cry all you like, but they are the facts, no wonder you don’t like to be called blueshirts, it has a cowardly ring to it. Much like you with the thousand names. Suck it up Dumbo.
John Doe No..Its not that simple and to say “toughen up” is quite disgusting.
What happened was a homophobic hate crime and those who did it should face the full rigours of the law.
For a gay person to see “Fag pub” and a swastika written on the outside of a gay pub is worrying and very disturbing.
@Just Me: the shinners fought side by side with comrade hitler and the nazis, have SF any shame at all? and you lot wonder why you are viewed as pondlife.
@Just Me: That is exactly what you are dealing with. Gutless cowards taking pleasure in hurting the poor. But I’ll tell you think=s. The people have had it with the privileged and the like of Gael and their sick evil supporters here taking pleasure in talking about punishing vulnerable people on social welfare. It only proves to me how depraved anyone who supports Fianna Gael truly are. .Cowards through and through They would hide behind their mother in a fight. Just look at what they churning out as so called leaders, The likes of Kenny Varadkar and Coveney????? I can’t say what I really want to say or I’d be banned but suffice to say weak lilly livered comes to mind. Wimps.
@booby sandwiches: I am gay and I;d rather a homobhobic any day over the likes of you. When I look at the comments it makes my skin crawl. Fianna Gael a bunch of cowards who jumped on the gay bandwagon all because their little poster boy was gay. Don’t be fooled. Kenny went to panti bar and pictures were posted and It caused uproar. Big mistake. Id rather stand with the westboro baptist church then Fianna Gael. At least you know where you stand with Fred Phelps. Fiann aGael would gladly smile while they bury the hatched in your back.
@booby sandwiches: No no no you got it all wrong,. Sinn Fein have the height of respect for standing up the Unionists and negotiating peace in the North. Fianna Gael inspire nothing but hatred and a sickening empty reach reaction. They are cowards of the highest order targeting the most vulnerable people in the state old people and children. They have a proven track record or it and we will punish them accordingly in the next election. Wait and see and as the Borg Queen says, Watch your futures end’.
@Nointerest Here: You’re absolutely right regarding FG. Gutless cowards doing Europe’s bidding with their snouts jockeying for position at the trough. Between them and FF they have turned this country into an orchard for their rich friends to have the finest fruits and the leavings or soon to be rotten fruit divided up for the rest of us,
@alphanautica: It’s chalk…it washes away as quickly and this should. Every aspect of society has random crap like this. See it for what it is and see that its only words in chalk. Now, back to life please. All the pics and talk just gives him the stage which he wants.
@Just Me: Who are you, why are you hiding and looks like you just blew in here with the wind? A troll maybe, a SF hypocrite getting upset about the small number of comments on fatality articles and not upset about the many SF/Ira killed?
It’s one of the busiest streets in Dublin, it was Friday night with loads of late night pubs and there is CCTV everywhere; shouldn’t be too hard to catch the culprits.
@Matthew Johnston: I wouldn’t know if they were pretty as I didn’t see them.If you seen them and thought they were pretty maybe you could give a description to the guards
Alot of people who are pro LGBT+ rights now(& rightfully so) probably bullied people at school & used the word gay in a negative towards them. Oh the irony.
All the spelling was correct. Odd choice with the chalk. If I was a homo phobic vandal I would have used an oil based paint. I would probably use oil based paint if was just a run of the mill vandal actually.
@Elle Belle: did you ever think that maybe it helps people struggling with their own sexuality to see that people for the most part are accepted when they do come out?
@Elle Belle: Jesus not everything is about you! Has it ever occurred to you that seeing other people coming out helps people who may be struggling with their own sexuality. Ffs try thinking about somebody else for a change.
@Ricky Spanish: Maybe we should get the rest of them to announce what their sexual fetishes are, if it’s such a great idea to involve it in your business life.
@Elle Belle: Yea like they used the Gay issue to their advantage. They don’t give a shite about any gay person its power they want. They would side with satan if they could get votes from it.
@Deborah Behan: I’d say it was a straight teacher from a working class area I came to that conclusion because not safe to leave the chalk there till Monday and used to weighting on an upright surface
@Cian Tuohy: Yeah I love how the USA is blamed for this. The nation with arguably the biggest contribution to fighting Nazis and promoting the freedom from persecution for homosexuals.
You might want to look a lot further to the east for the core ideology at the cause of so much misery world wide. Sure it wasn’t long ago where a person of that ideology slaughtered many people in a club in Florida not to different to the George.
As stated above the Russians were quite happy to let the Nazis do as they wished until they encroached on their space.
Also without the Lend-Lease the Russians would have been gravely weakened. Anyway that is why I said “arguably” the USA made the greatest contribution in the fight against Nazi Germany.
@Paul Hughes: I think you might find that the victory over Nazi Germany wasn’t all down to the Russians. American Lend Lease aid was critical to the Red Army and to the eventual victory over Germany. Senior Soviet figures during the war such as Stalin and Zhukov were adamant that they could not have defeated the Germans without America’s crucial Lend Lease aid. Do you not find that at all significant or maybe you sleep easier at night believing that the Russians did it all? I am hardly being disparaging to Soviet sacrifice during the war, a phenomenally costly one at 27 million, to point out the comparable role (in my opinion) played by the United States in defeating Nazi Germany. Neither the Red Army or U.S. industrial capacity on its own could have defeated the Nazis.
@Stephen Moore: The Americans let the Nazis do as they liked for two years before they entered the war, and then only because they had been directly attacked at Pearl Harbor. The Russians were already fighting Germany for a year by that time. Without Japan attacking Pearl Harbor it’s possible the US may not have entered the war at all.
Also, Russia had much more to lose than the US did. Unlike the US, their actual homeland was at risk of being taken over by the Nazis. They couldn’t afford to go to war before they were sure they had a chance of winning.
@Tweety McTweeter: yes, because this sort of expression cannot be connected in any way, shape, or form with the sort of violence I presume you are alluding to with your comments about the “worse” things they could be doing. Like, I dunno, joining neo nazi groups and spreading their hate??
@Shanti:
Let’s get real, Shanti. Its some words written in chalk either by kids or an adult with very limited mental capacity. Most people see worse, more permanent graffiti when walking to work in the morning. I think we can rest easy that there’s no organised Nazi movement coming as a result of these scrawls
@Tweety McTweeter: Yeah, right, and on the 9th of November 1938 it was only a few broken shop windows and a little property damage, wasn’t it, just a bit of chalk, yeah, never mind the message
Tweety.
It is quite worthy of being news worthy. You being a straight person have no idea what its like being gay and being subjected to hate.
The graffiti was a homophobic hate crime
If they were going to vandalise the property at least they could have been more original than “Faggot Bar”. The linguistic capacity of some of today’s vandals is truly shocking and to be pitied more than scorned. Probably Trump, Le Pen, Putin supporters.
@Mick Jordan: so you were being sarcastic?…sorry it went right over my head…I’ll make up for it by watching snl and blaming everything on trump …is that OK?
@Henry Matthews: Thanks for focusing on the only light-hearted, throwaway part of my otherwise serious comment, and turning it into something hateful and bigotedl.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: you got me there …I missed the whole gist of your comment ….tell the truth I don’t think it was students who did this…I think it was customers or staff of the George hoping to drum up a bit of business …
Why even refer to it as a Gay Bar? It’s a bar. In a world where people are crying out for equality why do the media still segregate? Do we see articles stating heterosexual bar? No! Equality is about respecting individuals foremost. Sexual preference etc shouldn’t dictate a headline. As for the inhuman attitude of a few… Grow up!
@Tom Kennedy: Probably because places like this had to set up because gay people in Ireland didn’t used to be allowed to be openly gay in other bars and so were forced to make their own.
How short is your memory?
“Oh no…that place is called a wine bar! Why not just call it a bar? We are all one alcoholic beverage! #AllBarsMatter”
You know what as a gay man I would have taken a completely stance on this. I would have highlighted it to the media and then put other slang words around it and embraced it. Take it and turn it into something else and defeat it. But then again I don’t get hung up over it like many gay people. The gay community is full of drama queens who love making a big thing out of nothing. I grew up in a tough neighbourhood in Limerick and it would take a lot more than that to offend me.
Deborah, I abhor homophobia in any guise. Merely saying the timing of this is convenient, in the same way as if an anti Cork slogan appeared somewhere might help Coveney. It’s my cynicism that’s at fault but that’s developed as a result of seeing some Horribly cynical things in politics. I’d regard myself as a left wing pro choice, pro gay rights kind of person but if you’d prefer to think I’m a right wing homophobe, then so be it.
@Dave O Keeffe: That’s what I was wondering. Who would be swayed by something like and Leo is not likely to use it in any way. Silly comment if you ask me!
If this attack is indeed genuine then I absolutely condemn it and those who did it. However let’s not forget that >90% of so called homophobic hate crime is fake or staged to elicit sympathy and further an agenda. Wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out the bar did it just for publicity.
@Aidan Power: Stupid deflection argument that people use all the time. Why must it be a closeted gay person? Why are you so quick to dismiss the fact that there are homophobic, hateful straight people?
Instead you blame this homophobic act on…gay people. You’re a homophobe whether you realise it or not.
@Bryan Kelly: Your entitled to your opinion but I am no way homophobic, actually I have plenty of gay and straight friends, someones sexuality does not bother me in the slightest.
Sickening! Fascism along with homophobia and racism has no place in modern Irish society. The majority of Irish people believe in equality and have have expressed that belief by voting in favour of it. There still are a few morons out there unfortunately.
My gut feeling is that this was a hoax, probably committed by one of their own customers. It’s not unusual for people to stage fake hate crimes, either against themselves personally, or against members of their own demographic (for example, the majority of the recent bomb threats made against Jewish groups in America, were traced to a teenager in Israel), and as history has shown, this does include alleged hate crimes against gay people.
@Bryan Kelly: It isn’t just two incidents. It’s just two examples that I gave, seeing as The Journal only allows two links in a post. Anymore than two links, and the post is considered spam and doesn’t post.. Seeing as I’m making another post, here’s two more examples.
@Dave Murray: I didn’t decide it was a hoax. I said my gut feeling is that it is probably a hoax, and I based it on the fact that I’ve seen similar stories play out before where it ended up being a hoax. Read what I said again, I even said that maybe it is genuine, but people like you are so in favour of engaging in a witch hunt, that you’re incapable of even basic skepticism, before automatically buying into the narrative.
Hmm nip it in the bud get a hold of them make them clean it up and then make them go in the bar apologise to the owners and then make them do a month talking to LGBT group meet some great people there who will have a talk to them about real life they soon get to know being fat isn’t a crime been neo mazy is an idiocy being gay ishard enough without this bs . Far and few teenagers are idiots like that .
Those need to have their minds opened so they don’t grow up to be idiots .
@Virtual Architect: You heard it here first everyone. Homophobia is over…so sayeth the faceless man on the Internet. Nothing to see here, move along. There wasn’t a gang attacking LGBT people in the city centre just two years ago for months.
People do this type of thing when alcohol is involved it really does bring out the good and the bad in people. Anti social behavior should be stamped out.
People do this type of thing when alcohol is involved it really does bring out the good and the bad in people. Anti social behavior should be stamped out.
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