Several election posters for the Progressive Democrats were binned today after the party breached strict laws protecting one of Dublin's most historic parks.
Workers chopped down the posters from the antique lampposts of St Stephen's Green as party leader Ms Mary Harney campaigned just hundreds of yards away on Grafton Street.
The Office of Public Works, which maintains the park, has warned all maintenance staff to remove any posters in the area of the park.
"Stephen's Green is a historic property it is not appropriate or possible to put up posters on any national monument," a spokeswoman for the OPW said. "Any posters put up will be removed from there."
One man with the task of removing any offending literature said the four PD posters advocating a Yes vote in the June citizenship referendum were on the park's antique lampposts.
He said: "I'm just told if I see any election posters to take them down. They [the posters] were hanging inside on the pedestrian lights of the park."
The 1962 by-law covering St Stephen's Green dictates no posters, advertisements or handbills may be placed within the environs of the park. "It goes right out to the curb and not just the railings," the spokeswoman said.
A PD spokesman said: "It was obviously a mistake. Volunteers have been designated to put up the posters. And the people that had been designated had experience."
The party has put up around 1,000 posters, mainly throughout Dublin, for the upcoming referendum and local and European elections.
PA