Messages left at the Savita Halappanavar mural will be preserved at Dublin City Library

Dublin City Council has released a statement on the matter.

The South Richmond Street mural of Savita Halappanavar has, of Thursday afternoon, been removed. Painted by Dublin street artist ACHES, the piece became a focal point for supporters of the Yes vote in the referendum on the Eighth Amendment prior to its passing on Friday 25 May. In the days running up to the referendum and the days after, the mural was covered in a huge number of support messages, which are to be digitised and preserved by Dublin City Library and Archives.

Friday morning saw flowers being left at the bottom of the mural, along with ‘Yes’ leaflets, pens and sellotape to aid note-writing.

Among notes that were left at the poignant artwork were several messages including the words "never again", "choice" and "so sorry." In a statement from Dublin City Council, a spokesperson revealed to JOE that a photographer had been commissioned to take photographs of the mural and notes prior to its removal. They stated that the content would be preserved "for future generations." "In keeping with our collections policy, Dublin City Library and Archive commissioned a photographer to take photographs of the mural and the notes on 29 May 2018. We estimated that there were approximately 1,200 cards on the mural on that date, though not all were completely legible due to their positioning," their spokesperson said. "Our immediate plans are to preserve, catalogue and add these images to our online digital collections and the photographs will provide a valuable sampling of the content for future generations. "A more complete project would be to scan each individual note and to preserve the original cards themselves. Dublin City Library and Archive would be pleased to accept either a donation of the original cards or to accept the cards on temporary loan for scanning purposes should the Together For Yes and other stakeholders wish to proceed with such a project. "As well as scanning the notes as archival quality image files, we would also capture important catalogue information, and ensure the long term preservation and accessibility of the digital image via our membership of the Digital Repository of Ireland." https://www.instagram.com/p/BjalloOAnN2/?hl=en&taken-by=thebernardshaw The original mural is now set to be put into storage by The Bernard Shaw pub, the owners of the South Richmond wall. It remains unclear where it will be displayed next. Friday 25 May saw Ireland vote 66.4% to 33.6% to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution, allowing for the legislation of abortion in certain circumstances. Dublin Bay South had the highest percentage of yes votes with a figure of 78.5%. Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Fingal were also in the top three.