Irish eco-artist highlights pollution

An artist who uses rubbish picked out of the River Liffey for inspiration has built a huge, psychedelic sculpture from traffic cones dumped in the water to highlight pollution.

Eco-artist Gerard Dowling has spent the last few years clambering into the Liffey at low tide and pulling out the plastic bollards and other discarded junk.

After months of planning he has used 27 cones, some still covered in barnacles, to build the multicoloured structure entitled "dodecagram" to raise awareness about pollution in the river.


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Incidentally, this is the same Gerard Dowling who with no apparent source of income, who has never bought a house, does not pay rent, and yet, for 33 years, has been living in a multi-million euro Georgian property in the centre of Dublin. He's not a squatter. He's not a tenant. He's a man who's flummoxed the legal system.

According to Dowling, the little goldmine in which he resides is worth a cool 10m. A local estate agent estimates its value at closer to 2m.

Despite having no obvious claim to the property, Dowling says it is not a squat. A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council agrees. "We own the property, and Gerard Dowling had a tenancy in it which is expired, " she said. "We have tried and failed to evict him. However, we don't regard him as a squatter, although he's not a legal tenant either. His file is with our legal department. It's a very big file."