A Dublin City Council subcommittee is set to write to An Post requesting a historic post box be reinstated after it was removed due to colostomy bags being dropped into it.
The attacks on the post box on the corner of Chapel Avenue and Bath Street in Ringsend 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 and is believed to have started a campaign to have it removed which began with paint being thrown over it.
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But more recently, filled colostomy bags were dropped into it. The box was sealed off a couple of months ago, before it was removed due to the health risks.
Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn submitted an emergency motion to the South East Area Committee which called on An Post to reinstate the post box. The motion read: "The removal of this historic post box has caused great upset with the local community and the local historic society.
"This post box was part of the identity of the area and a much loved heritage item. I we wish to make a city to live it is objects like this that give the streetscape a sense of identity and place making it also connects the local community and visitors to their history."
Chair of the South East Area Committee Cllr Dermot Lacey told a meeting of the subcommittee they will write to An Post in relation to reinstating the post box.
A new box was put in place ten yards away from the old box. 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 added 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.
A spokesman for An Post previously told Dublin Live 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."
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