A mural depicting the rainbow flag of the LGBT+ community was defaced last weekend in Newbridge, County Kildare.

The vandals painted over it in black, writing: “F**k LGBT” and “LGBT b*****d”. They also drew another rainbow with a cross going through it.

The original mural was painted by students in the Patrician Secondary School. Kieran Behan, an art teacher at the school, spoke to Kildare Now and criticised its vandalisation.

“It is sad and frustrating that this should happen and this is the first time it’s been defaced,” he said.

The painting was part of an educational project at the Newbridge school, along with a number of other events which had taken part earlier in the year. The vandals had also painted over the mural during the weekend of the five year anniversary of marriage equality in Ireland.

“The mural is there because of the attitude that saw it defaced in this way. It was put there to counter that type of thinking,” Behan said.

Thankfully, there are plans to remove the expletives and restore it to its former glory. The mural site is to be coated with masonry paint and the mural will then be painted again.

“Volunteers from the Kildare Youth Theatre have offered to give a hand,” Behan added. “If we left it there as it is it would be sending out a bad message.”

This is not the first anti-LGBT+ incident which has occurred in Newbridge this year. Back in early February, a homophobic attack took place outside Newbridge’s railway station.

Two men were assaulted by a gang, with one of them even being stabbed four times. He had to be rushed to Tallaght hospital as a result.

Since the attack, a friend of the couple set up a petition for Ireland to bring in hate crime legislation. Ireland remains one of the few EU countries to not have any such laws.