Tallaght firefighter has 'no idea' who nominated his impressive artwork for award

• Author: Roisin Butler
• Published date: 22 November 2022
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

Geoff Tracey won the Arts and Heritage category in the Tallaght Person of the Year Awards. He secured a nomination due to his impressive portraits in the area, facilitated by the Dublin Canvas Project. Geoff has completed vivid portraits of people on traffic boxes in the Tallaght area, including local legend Paddy 'Drac' Finlay

His portrait of Paddy, a local man who used to dress up as Count Dracula in Dublin's St Patrick's Day Parade, was met with rave reviews. It was sadly painted over in 2019, but Geoff is hopeful the initiative will lead to more artwork depicting local heroes in the future.

Geoff, who works full time in Dublin Fire Brigade, said: "This was the first year the awards were back since COVID, which made the other night that extra bit special. There was 350 people at the awards, which was just brilliant. To have Tallaght Community Council ask me to paint a piece of a local man like Paddy Finlay, it's a little thing that I can give back to the community I grew up in."

He had to celebrate his win from afar as he was away for the weekend, but his parents attended the ceremony in his place and accepted the award. Another notable nominee includes Aon Sceal Café in Tallaght, an Irish language coffee shop that fed Geoff while he was painting on the street.

Although Geoff considers art as a hobby, second to his full time commitments, he has created a more recent...