By Katy Thornton
Let’s just hope she doesn’t face the same level of defacement as our own Molly Malone.
Irish pub The Dubliner, based in Boston, has really committed to the bit and installed a piece of Dublin landscape we are all too familiar with – a replica statue of Molly Malone.
The bronze statue is an uncanny replica of the Jeanne Rynhart sculpture which was first erected at the bottom of Grafton Street in 1988, before it was relocated to Suffolk Street in 2014.
According to The Irish Times, the pub owners Donegal-born Orán McGonagle and Dublin-born William McCarthy hoped to give a nod to the famous Molly Malone statue with their Boston replica, and wanted to incite “chat and banter” about the story of the cockles and mussels saleswoman.
There’s a new bronze statue across the street from Boston City Hall. pic.twitter.com/Y1GJJnrqkX
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) November 1, 2023
Molly Malone statue unveiled outside Boston pub
Based off a famous song about a fictional 17th century fishwife, who plied her tried “selling cockles and mussels” in the city, the original Dublin statue has been subject to many a controversy over her years.
Let’s just hope that the new Boston version isn’t subjected to the same treatment from tourists as our own Molly Malone statue. Not only are her breasts regularly fondled for “good luck”, the Suffolk Street piece has been defaced on multiple other occasions over the last few months, most recently being subject to black paint smeared on her front, as well as green graffiti.
This article was originally published on LovinDublin.com
Header images via Getty & Twitter / Only In Boston
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