A historic post box in south Dublin has been removed after filled colostomy bags were repeatedly dropped into it.
The attacks posed a major health and safety risk to An Post workers as well as those receiving potentially contaminated mail. An unknown person or group took issue with the city centre box on the corner of Chapel Avenue and Bath Street in Ringsend, and is believed to have started a campaign to have it removed which began with paint being thrown over it.
But more recently, filled colostomy bags were dropped into it. The box was sealed off a couple of months ago, before it was removed recently due to the health risks.
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A new box has since been put in place ten yards away from the old box last week. A source said: "There were a couple of first of all paint attacks on it a number of years ago, but more recently there was somebody putting filled colostomy bags in it.
"The difficulty with that is, it is not just the postal person that comes along, it is any mail in the box could be infected, contaminated or whatever. It was a serious problem."
The source said it is unknown what exactly the motivation was behind the attacks but there are suspicions the post box was attacked because it is a "British Empire box". The box has a "GR" on it which means it was put in during King George V's reign which began in 1910.
There hasn't been any attacks on the new box which was put in last week. There are around 5,000 heritage post boxes across the country and a "good chunk" of those pre-date the birth of the state. The post box in question was put into storage and may be used in a historic display in the future.
Local residents were upset about the removal of the box due to its historical significance. Paul Bannock of the Ringsend and Districts Historical Society said the area is at risk of being "stripped" of its heritage.
He said: "It was an important part of our local history and had featured in our recently successful historical walks of our area. Indeed we were working on having it included in our supplementary brochure in conjunction with the current DCC one, which was launched last year.
"Our area is in danger of being stripped of our heritage and we wish to preserve as much as possible of it. The post box, as well as the Victorian one in Ringsend, was beloved by local residents, both old and new."
A spokesman for An Post said they value the heritage of their "silent stationary metal postal colleagues". He said: "There is certainly no question of our much valued heritage boxes being removed from the streets and roadsides.
"We very much value our silent stationary metal postal colleagues. Unfortunately in this case the box in question had been subject to repeated attacks over a number of years and more recently with items deposited in the box which were a public health hazard to staff and members of the public.
"Initially the post box was sealed in response but we were anxious to restore the service as soon as it was possible to do so safely and without risk. Given the ongoing issues and the likelihood of repeat behaviour the decision was taken to remove the box and to replace it with a new box roughly ten yards away.
"I appreciate that there are local customers who would have preferred to have the old box retained but given its targeting we felt we had no alternative." There had been fears raised by Councillor Mannix Flynn that other historic boxes would be removed but the spokesman denied this.
He said: "This was very much a once off incident dictated by local circumstances. An Post has no plans to remove other post boxes in the city although post boxes are always subject to a change of location for a variety of reasons including changes to the streetscape, traffic flow and changes to mail routes."
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