In central Dublin, a statue meant to celebrate a woman has instead become a symbol of how women’s bodies are still treated. The famous statue of Molly Malone depicts a woman in a long dress pushing a cart. It was unveiled in 1988 to celebrate the city’s millennium on Grafton Street before being moved to Suffolk Street around 2014. The figure portrays the woman in the city’s unofficial anthem, ‘Cockles and Mussels’. The simple folk song is about Molly Malone, a fish merchant like the rest of her family, but she dies young from a fever. She’s been a symbol of Irish pride and a reminder of the hardships the country has overcome. This attention led her to become a popular tourist attraction for both local and international visitors.
Once images and videos of this statue began appearing online in 2022, it became a media sensation, but not for a positive reason. Other tourist attractions, like the Blarney Stone, are meant to be touched for good luck, but Molly’s statue showed wear everywhere except for her breasts. People across the globe began to criticize how degrading the custom had become and how normalized it was. Instead of simply taking a photo with her, tourists were rubbing the statue’s breasts. This issue began to gain attention from media outlets in Ireland as well as overseas. Thousands were outraged and began to stop people in public from participating in the long-running tradition.
Numerous women began posting videos online, holding Molly Malone’s hand instead of her breasts as a sign of respect and protection. This movement blatantly demonstrated how even a statue of a woman is not able to receive respect. Tourists and influencers tried to guide things in a positive direction, encouraging future tourists visiting Dublin to hold her hand instead. During the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, women held Molly Malone’s hand and covered her bust with flowers or necklaces. The city had Gardaí (Police Force) on each side of the statue during the month of May 2025 to prevent people from touching the statue inappropriately. Even a young woman at Trinity College Dublin, who often busks on Suffolk Street, started a campaign titled ‘Leave Molly mAlone’.
After continuous attention, Dublin City Council decided to refurbish the statue in early October 2025. It was cleaned, the bronze was restored to her chest, and it was unveiled on October 10–11, 2025. The humiliating and derogatory tradition appeared to be coming to an end. Media outlets and Irish citizens were satisfied with the refurbishment as well as the acknowledgement from the city and began to move on. The media posts have since ground to a halt, and news stations have stopped reporting it.
One aspect that has received little coverage is the statue after its restoration. The media is often fast-moving, and viral pieces or stories are quickly forgotten, but Molly Malone shouldn’t be. As of late 2026, the statue is already beginning to fade again in that area. As much as the online feminist movement tried to change the tradition to holding her hand, it hasn’t worked, and the practice is still occurring. We are in a so-called ‘time of equality and progress’, but if even a statue can’t be respected, it raises the question of how far we truly are from reaching equality. The tradition of Molly Malone is just one example of misogyny embedded in our history and society. Attention must remain on stories like this to hold people accountable and continue shedding light on the normalization of sexism. Until these ‘small’ acts stop being normalized, stories like Molly Malone’s will keep repeating.