URBAN ART: It's cheap. It's cheerful. It's large. It's being painted by many busy little hands. And very soon it will adorn the centre of Dublin's O'Connell Street.

An example of truly public art, painted by local children, to be enjoyed by the wider community, the work measures 2.5 metres high by 65 metres long.

When EL visited, the tins of paint were open in Rutland Street National School and the enthusiastic pupils were working, under the direction of artist Gemma Browne, on scenes showing a cross-section of Ireland from west to east, from the sea, across the grey Burren and the green midlands to the school itself.

Artist Patrick O'Reilly, who designed the panels, has also interwoven images from the Hugh Lane Gallery: there's Lady Lavery, as well as parts of Francis Bacon's paintings and his chaotic studio. Reilly likens it to a "giant collage cut out of pieces of paper".

The Hugh Lane runs an outreach programme that places artists in schools; the gallery is co-ordinating the project on behalf of the O'Connell Street Rejuvenation Project.

This artwork will be joined by a series of images created by artist Rita Duffy. She celebrates her mother, sister, brother, and six country aunts, recalling shopping trips to Dublin.

Costing all of €33,350, these works will be a talking point for six months and will then be removed - to a fate yet to be decided. For they are but the hoarding to hide the burrowing and building that will result in the erection of the controversial €4 million 120-metre metal spire.

Price tag apart, the wrapping somehow seems more attractive than the gift.