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Something remarkable happened when this abortion rights mural was painted over

A moving show of public solidarity.

Rachel Thompson

on July 29, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

LONDON -- Irish artists are recreating a mural using graffiti and projection in an act of solidarity after an abortion rights mural was painted over by the Dublin City Council.

The original mural by street artist Maser was painted three weeks ago on the wall of Dublin's Project Arts Centre.

The mural featured a large red heart emblazoned with the words "Repeal the 8th" and called on the Irish government to repeal its constitutional ban on abortion.

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On Monday, just 19 days after being painted, the mural was removed by the city council after officials deemed it to be in violation of planning laws.

Its removal sparked outrage on social media, with one Twitter user hailing the act as censorship.

Its removal has sparked an outpouring of public solidarity. On Thursday night, campaigners projected an image of the original mural onto a building in Cork, Ireland...

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And one graffiti artist recreated the original mural on a wall in in Arklow, Ireland...

Campaigners have taken to the streets of Dublin to paint the words "repeal the 8th" on the walls near a different mural by Maser...

On Wednesday, the Dublin bakery Aungier Danger created doughnuts mirroring Maser's mural design...

Also, t-shirts emblazoned with Maser's original design were created in a show of solidarity -- and promptly sold out...

Dubliners are placing stickers with the design around the city...

And others are posing for photographs at the site where the mural was removed...

Protesters sporting blue face paint also gathered outside the site of the mural...

People are sharing images on social media in a bid to circulate Maser's design...

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.