CNN
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A famous Dublin statue of a mythical fishmonger should be protected from the groping hands of tourists and passersby, says a young woman campaigning to protect her.
Tilly Cripwell is in her final year studying languages at the city’s famous Trinity College. Over the past two-and-a-half years the 23-year-old Briton, who is also a singer-songwriter, has been busking at some of the most popular tourist spots in the Irish capital—including by the bronze statue of Molly Malone.
She regularly sees selfie-seekers stopping to pose with Malone, a fictional young woman who is the subject of the city’s unofficial anthem, “Molly Malone.” Covered by everyone from U2 to Joni Mitchell, the song tells of a young seafood seller who plied her trade on Dublin’s streets and died of a fever.
But it is Malone’s low-cut dress that appears to have attracted more attention than her sad fate, as well as the urban myth that doing so can bring good luck. So many people now rub or grope her breasts, according to Cripwell, that the bronze has dramatically changed color.
“When you’re busking you spend a couple of hours at a time in a spot and I just saw this behavior so often and one day I had just had enough and thought if I’m going to continue to busk there then I need to stop this,” Cripwell told CNN in a phone call.
“It isn’t actually a tradition—it’s more of a trend as it’s only emerged in the last 15 or 20 years. Generally it’s people standing up to get a picture and groping Molly’s breasts, usually from behind. Often you get people kissing her breasts or putting their faces in them and they’re generally really loud and rowdy.”
Both men and women engage in this behavior, but men tend to be more brazen, said Cripwell. “The other day some French tourists also mimed groping me after groping her from maybe a meter away,” she added. “The main thing that gets me is that it’s a really bad example on the standards we’re setting for behavior around women in society.”
The statue of Malone pushing her cart has become one of the city’s main photo opportunities since it was created by the late sculptor Jeanne Rynhart. Originally erected on Grafton Street in 1988 for Dublin’s millennium celebrations, it was moved to nearby Suffolk Street in 2014 to make way for a new tram line.
Cripwell launched her #LeaveMollymAlone social media campaign in February last year and has since met with Dublin City Council to ask them to make some changes.
“The main thing is to have the statue raised on a higher pedestal, which will match the majority of male statues here, and also to have the whole statue repatinated so that there’s no discoloration on her breasts,” Cripwell told CNN. She would also like to see a plaque put up, explaining the story behind the legend.
In a recent post on Instagram, Cripwell said she thought such changes would “elevate Molly both physically and figuratively, and highlight the story that contributes to her legacy.”
She said Dublin officials are eager to collaborate but nothing has yet been implemented, though she said they have asked tour guiding companies to deter participants from touching the statue.
Cripwell said she sometimes speaks up for Malone, but that this can be “exhausting,” as up to 60 people touch her every hour on a busy day. She has, however, come up with an alternative course of action: her own cover version of the famous song, including extra verses she has written tagged on at the end.
The song tells of “sweet Molly Malone,” who wheeled her wheelbarrow through the streets selling cockles and mussels—even beyond the grave. But Cripwell’s version continues with the spectral Malone witnessing this groping.
She sings: “Now no one can save her from the people who claim her,
And I want to scream ‘just leave Molly alone!’
Like those with no voice, she’s left with no choice,
Crying ‘Leave her alone, our Molly Malone.’”
Dublin City Council did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
