How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
Molly Malone (Dublin, Ireland)
“Molly Malone” is a famous Irish song, dating back to the 17th century, and it served as the inspiration for this statue – now one of the more famous in all of Ireland (according to some listicles I read, anyway.)
Among the art’s most striking characteristics of the piece is the highly detailed and realistic (mostly) 17th century dress, her fittingly sad and downcast eyes… and well, her very exposed cleavage. The artist defended the choice as to the last, noting that it would have been common for women in Irish Catholic Ireland to breastfeed publicly in that era, but I suspect she took some liberties with that information and it has caused quite a bit of controversy – especially lately.
The statue was commissioned by the Jurys Hotel Group and created by Dublin artist Jeanne Rynhart to celebrate the city of Dublin’s 1,000th birthday in 1988. Today, the statue is the center of some controversy due to a recently formed tradition of rubbing the bosom of “Molly” for good luck. The result of the public groping – in addition to the message it might be sending – is a discoloration of her breasts relative to the rest of the statue.
Like a lot of artwork, “Molly Malon” was not universally well-loved by critics when it debuted, however, it has grown in popularity in the decades since. Today it’s one of Dublin’s most frequently visited sites.
Molly Malone is commemorated in a statue commissioned by Jurys Hotel Group and designed by Jeanne Rynhart, erected to celebrate the city’s first millennium in 1988. It was initially intended that Rynhart would be commissioned to create 12 street sculptures, including those of famous literary figures such as W. B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde, with the intention of creating a sculpture trail in the city. The unveiling of the statue was not met with universal praise, with Adrian Munnelly, director of the Arts Council in his capacity as registrar of Aosdána, writing to Bord Fáilte (the National Tourism Development) at the time to express his members’ “universal depreciation” noting the statue was “entirely deficient in artistic point and merit”. Lord Mayor of Dublin Ben Briscoe defended the statue, saying “the statue was regarded with great warmth and affection by the city of Dublin”.
The statue was originally placed at the bottom of Grafton Street, and as with other public art in the city, was christened colloquially as “The Tart with the Cart”. The statue portrays Molly as a busty young woman in 17th-century dress, which would have consisted of a full-length chemise, overskirt and basque of wool. Her low-cut dress and large breasts were justified on the grounds that as “women breastfed publicly in Molly’s time, breasts were popped out all over the place.” The traditional, but revealing, costume in which Rynhart sculpted her may have also nodded to her supposed job as a part-time prostitute.
In April 2014, the statue was removed from its original location at the base of Grafton Street and kept in storage to make way for the new Luas tracks which skirted around Trinity College. During the removal of the statue, some cracks were revealed which required restoration work. Bushy Park Ironworks carried this out in the city. Speaking to The Irish Times, ironworks employee Edward Bisgood noted how the company was “carrying out some patination to bring her back to her original dark brown colour, but (was) leaving the areas where she’s been rubbed over the years, so she will look as people remember her, but she’ll be a lot stronger”.
In July 2014, the statue was placed in its new location outside the Dublin Tourist Office (formerly St. Andrew’s Church) on Suffolk Street, a short distance from the original site. Due to its notability and location, the statue is also a common starting and finishing point for some of Dublin city’s walking tours.
A tourist touches the Molly Malone statue
Sometime before 2014, reportedly at the instigation of an “imaginative tour guide”, tourists began rubbing the statue’s bosom area “for luck”. The relatively new practice has been criticised by a number of people, including Dublin-born singer Imelda May, who associated it with the objectification of women and questioned how “the only statue in Dublin with breasts is basically assaulted in front of our children’s eyes daily”. In February 2024, a busker initiated a “Leave Molly mAlone” campaign to draw attention to the misogynistic trend and call for it to end. In 2025, Dublin City Council hired stewards in a trial to discourage the practice. The trial was not viewed as succesful by the City Council and a decision has been made to place flowerbeds around the base as a physical barrier.
For a beautiful rendition of the song, a good view of the statue, and some evidence of the new practice of her public groping, I recommend the video below:
