art vandals Video showing Irish Rail carriage covered by graffiti 'tagger' sparks online anger

Footage of a graffiti “attack” on an Irish Rail train has sparked an angry reaction after it was posted on social media.

A TikTok video shows the aftermath of the 'artist's' work alongside the words: “Whole inside carriage tagged up by graffiti writer JJ1..is graffiti art or vandalism?”

Several messages in the comments section appear to back the argument that this was pure vandalism.

“Proper art is art in the right place. This ain't it. Whoever did that shouldn't be let near crayons. Zero talent.”

Another added: “It’s dirt. Gik. Best of luck to them with the portfolio to NCAD with that."

However, one argued: “But Banksy could get sick on a wall and it’s called art. No 1 can tell any1 it’s not art.”

Last November, it was revealed that €500,000 worth of graffiti damage had been caused to trains since the start of the year.

Irish Rail figures showed more than 200 carriages have been targeted by vandals in the first 10 months of 2021.

The rail firm said there had been a "quite significant number" of incidents involving rail carriages - mostly DART carriages - being damaged during this year.

Irish Rail spokesperson Barry Kenny said at the time that in terms of graffiti specifically, it was “slightly different issue to anti-social behaviour, but obviously it is criminal damage”.

Mr Kenny said money spent cleaning graffiti is money they'd much rather be spending "on benefits for the customer"