LUKE KELLY’S STATUE has now been fully cleaned, hours after it was vandalised in Dublin yesterday evening. 

The statue on Sheriff Street was discovered yesterday evening daubed in black paint. 

On Twitter, Irish stone and masonry conservation firm P Mac said that the graffiti had been “safely removed without a trace”. 

There was widespread and immediate condemnation of the vandalism – the statue was only unveiled a few months ago. 

Local councillor Anthony Flynn described it as an “absolute ridiculous act of vandalism” and something which “mocks the memory of an inner city icon”.

Two statues to the Dublin icon were unveiled to the public earlier this year – one on Sheriff Street with the other on South King Street near Grafton Street.

Kelly was born in 1940 and grew up in Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city. One of the original members of The Dubliners, formed in 1962, his powerful singing voice marked him out as one of Ireland’s finest folk singers until his death in 1984 aged 43.