Stop Groping Molly Malone Statue, Dublin Tourists Told

Dublin City Council is considering steps to protect Molly Malone’s statue after so many tourists have rubbed her breasts ‘for luck’ that they have become discoloured. The Telegraph has more.

Tourists traditionally touch the iconic artwork, which represents a fictional street seller who died of a fever, for good luck.

But so many people have copped a feel that her bronze bust has now become discoloured, leading to a campaign to stop the “disrespectful” and “misogynistic” practice.

Student Tilly Cripwell, who busks in the area for about 10 hours each week, has launched a campaign calling on people to “leave Molly mAlone”.

The 22-year-old singer said: “The majority of people will touch her boobs for good luck, that’s a misogynistic tradition.

“A lot of people clamour around her, kiss her on the cheek, kiss her boobs, it’s all inappropriate. It’s reducing her to this derision and not giving her the status of being a national treasure.”

“This tradition is notorious to those within and without Dublin, with the discoloration of Molly’s breasts being the visual representation of such harassment,” she told the Irish Independent.

In response, Dublin city council is considering ways to protect the statue, which is in a revealing 17th-century dress.

“We are going to consider what to do and report back to our elected representatives,” Ray Yeates, Arts Officer at the council, told the Telegraph.

“It may be that education may be the answer but we will also consider protecting the statue.”

Among the options which will be considered are fencing, using seating or plants to form a barrier or even moving it to another location, although the council is very reluctant to take that step with the popular attraction.

Even statues are to be protected from harassment now, it appears.

Worth reading in full.

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Mogwai
2 years ago

Well I don’t know about ”misogynistic” if women are also copping a feel, but speaking of protecting statues…how much do you think this costs every single weekend and what do you think would happen if the police weren’t there? Surely it’s cheaper just to let Churchill wear a flag or ten? Another Saturday another mongfest in London. It’s getting old, Useless Idiots, it’s getting very old…

”Churchill statue needing a ring of @metpoliceuk
officers to protect it from the Palestine lot.

Don’t try and tell me these are the “good guys”!”

https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1763973005615542601

Heretic
Heretic
2 years ago

That is just unbelievably disgusting. I hope they find a way to protect their historical statue from all the pervert tourists. How far humanity have fallen!

iconoclast
2 years ago
Reply to  Heretic

Can someone please explain what is misogynistic or harassment about people touching a brass statue?

And while you are about it please also explain what is wrong with being islamophobic?

Surely it is quite normal to be frightened of attack by islamic extremists?

Salman Rushdie has been paying the price for over three decades and then suffered life-changing injuries when he was stabbed on stage. It is no small thing because he had a fatwa declared on him over thirty years ago by a leading Iranian cleric for his authorship of the Satanic Verses.

And the teacher in hiding in fear for his life is islamophobic – what is wrong with him being islamophobic?

Heretic
Heretic
2 years ago
Reply to  iconoclast

1) The term “Islamo-phobia” was invented by Muslims to portray themselves as “victims”. A more useful term is “Islamo-nausea”, because the whole world is sick of Islam.

2) It is neither “misogynistic” nor “harassment” that tourists are sexually fondling the reproductive organs of a statue in public.

It is as disgusting a pornographic public display as fondling their own reproductive organs in public. They should all be arrested.

huxleypiggles
2 years ago

I have just been reading Kathy Gyngell’s Week in Review at TCW and this mini bombshell appears:

“Who in Parliament or the Crown Estates agreed to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) projecting their message on to Big Ben? Someone must have since the Met Police have assured us it was not illegal. At TCW we decided to do some sleuthing and contacted a company that specialises in projecting advertising slogans on to buildings. And guess what they told us?

“Big Ben is actually the only place in the UK where it is illegal to project on to. You have to get written permission from the Speaker otherwise it is an arrestable offence.”

So either the Met was wrong and the law was broken, or Lindsay Hoyle (or perhaps the Crown Estates) to add to his other dreadful decisions, did agree to it. A PMQ or written question to James Cleverley is in order.”

Something tells me Kneel is involved in this caper.

I wonder who, if anyone, will cop a P45 for this piece of treachery.

Mogwai
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Yes that sounds dodgy as hell, doesn’t it? But what’s the betting that it remains a mystery regarding who gave the green light for that to go ahead? And on the topic of the terrorist-supporters, here’s a list of 80 proscribed terrorist groups from around the world ( I think 5 were deproscribed ), which I skimmed through and could find 5 which were of the ‘far-right’, white supremacist type of thing, just 1 or 2 in the UK. All the rest are Islamist extremist. So that’s approx 70 Islamist Jihad-promoting organizations vs 5 neo-Nazi groups, but the problem is apparently the ‘phantom menace’ far-right peeps, FFS?! Here’s what constitutes a criminal offence and check out the last two points in particular. How many of these anti-Israel, pro-Hamas yobs does this apply to, do you think, and the police do sweet FA? ”Proscription makes it a criminal offence to: belong, or profess to belong, to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas (section 11 of the act) invite support for a proscribed organisation (the support invited need not be material support, such as the provision of money or other property, and can also include moral support or approval) (section… Read more »

RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Hate speech is really becoming a bit long in the tooth by now but hate clothing, as determined by arises someone’s suspicion that it was meant to mean something, is decidedly an innovation. It also suggests that Israel must be one of those ‘democracies’ where everyone’s free to agree with the government or spend some time in jail instead.

jeepybee
2 years ago

Wait until they find out about poor Juliet’s statue in Verona!!

Monro
2 years ago

Derek: (sings:)

Oh, dear Little Flo
I love you so
Especially in your nightie

When the moonlight flits
Across your tits
Oh, Jesus Christ almighty

Clive:

Thank you, the Reverend Ike.

transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Monro

W***ing down Lambeth

Mogwai
2 years ago

Ah man, this is mint! Well worth 2mins of your life, especially if you were a Blur fan, LOL;

https://twitter.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1763997164055703899

huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Thanks Mogs 👍 Love it.

GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago

Just polish the rest of her to the same level, then it won’t be discoloured. It’s a statue. People like boobs. Ignore it.

True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
2 years ago

Or do what the Japanese do if they don’t want someone touching an artifact: paint it with urushiol (poison ivy) lacquer. That way any one who touches it will be caught red-handed, literally. LOL

soundofreason
soundofreason
2 years ago

Just rip the statue down and throw it in the river. Worse than Edward Colston – at least he didn’t spread disease. Molly, of course, didn’t leave a legacy to charities for the benefit of the public – mostly because she never existed.

I’m sure the WHO would strongly object to a statue in memory of a disease spreader.

/s

transmissionofflame
2 years ago

It’s reassuring to think that Dublin City Council have solved all of the city’s serious problems so they are able to move on to the more trivial ones

huxleypiggles
2 years ago

Dublin City Council obviously have been taking lessons from the Khant.

sskinner
2 years ago

Why is it misogynistic? This means hating women. This does not appear hateful and it is a statue not a real person. Perhaps ‘disrespectful’ to an historic statue. In Japan there is a giant penis festival which must be misandry then?

DaveEssel
DaveEssel
2 years ago

I used to stay at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow back in the nineties and noughties. There was/is? a bronze statue of a little naked cherub on the staircase leading up to the rooms, a staircase constantly walked by the many mostly businessmen guests and their charming visitors. The statue’s little appendage shone a way brighter tone than the rest of his body.

Prickly Thistle
Prickly Thistle
2 years ago
Reply to  DaveEssel

Was he touched by everyone on their way upstairs?

For a fist full of roubles

I would have thought it was the very opposite of misogyny.

Prickly Thistle
Prickly Thistle
2 years ago

It is, however, ridiculous. I would be too embarrassed to do such a thing and am embarrassed for those who do.

Jackthegripper
Jackthegripper
2 years ago

Statues and monuments should be protected. Taser a few people for abusing them, the problem will go away very quickly.

RW
RW
2 years ago

A better idea would probably to remove this objectum sexual which almost certainly can’t sing from the area. Everyone, especially the statue who can’t get away from it, would probably very much appreciate that.

nige.oldfart
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

I agree, I also got a hint of jealousy from this, guess what? a female student who was probably getting less attention than the statue. A Violet Elizabeth Bott, par se, or are we not allowed to say Bott anymore.

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
2 years ago

It’s human nature like kissing the Blarney Stone, throwing coins in the Trevi fountain or touching the nose of Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh. Just shows our innate superstitious nature and how touching a lump of bronze might change lives. It’s not my thing but let’s not get too concerned about it.

T. Prince
2 years ago

“Visual representation of such harassment”. Oh do grow up Tilly