?Love Locks

Dublin City Council is continuing to remove clumps of “love locks” attached to bridges around the capital, most notably from Ha’penny Bridge and Millennium Bridge, both located in the city centre.

The love lock concept involves couples writing or engraving their names on the padlocks, attaching the locks to the bridge and then trowing the key into the river below to symbolise their eternal love.

However the council has warned that the locks are causing corrosion to the city's bridges, in particular the historic Ha'penny Bridge which is nearly 200 years old and is a key tourist atttaction.

A council spokesperson said that removing the so-called love locks also poses a potential risk of damage to steel railings as well as the structures' paintwork.

Unlike other European capital cities such as Paris and Rome where the practice of attaching love locks to bridges is well-established, the phenomenon is relatively new to Dublin, beginning some time in late 2011.