Dublin council calls in guards to stop tourists touching breasts of Molly Malone’s statue after claims the good-luck gesture is damaging her assets

By JOSE RAMOS

Published: 09:46 BST, 7 May 2025 | Updated: 12:55 BST, 7 May 2025

A council has called in guards to stop tourists from touching the breasts of Molly Malone’s statue after claims the gesture is damaging it.

The bronze statue, which is a popular landmark for tourists in Dublin, has been a target for many visitors to the city.

Tradition dictates that anyone who touches the statue’s assets will have good luck.

As a result, throughout the years, thousands of tourists have approached and groped her breasts.

However, after a campaigner began to notice the trend, she has now taken it on herself to make sure the habit ends for good.

Tilly Cripwell has called on Dublin City Council to raise the 1988 statue out of reach so people can no longer grope the metal body part.

The student claimed she has seen tourists touch the statue’s chest up to 60 times per hour and the the tradition has tarnished the likeness of the local folk hero.

And now the council has brought in stewards to guard the statue and make sure tourists who want to get a closer look are stopped.

Dublin City Council will deploy stewards to deter people from groping a statue of Irish folklore figure Molly Malone, seen here, in the belief that it will bring good luck 

Concerns about the practice have been raised by Tilly Cripwell, above, a student who busks near the statue. She said plans to introduce stewards were ‘short sighted and quite short term’

Touching the statue’s breasts, a custom said to bring good fortune, has tarnished the effigy

Who was Molly Malone? 

Molly Malone is a legendary figure from Dublin folklore, famously featured in the song ‘Cockles and Mussels’.

She’s often depicted as a beautiful fishmonger who tragically died young, and she’s become a symbol of the city—even if there’s no historical proof she actually existed.

The song tells the story of a young woman who sold seafood on the streets of Dublin, crying ‘Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!’ She was beloved but died young of a fever, and the song ends with her ghost still pushing her cart through the city. 

It’s a bittersweet mix of charm and tragedy.

A statue, crafted by Dublin artist Jeanne Rynhart, was unveiled on Grafton Street in 1988 as part of the city’s Millennium celebrations, with Lord Mayor Ben Briscoe doing the honours. But in July 2014, Molly was moved to Suffolk Street outside the Tourist Information Office, giving up her old spot for new tram tracks. 

Every time a tourist tried to cop a feel of Dublin’s most legendary bosom, one of the guards would firmly say: ‘No touching please.’

This is part of a week-long pilot scheme while bosses come up with a different way of protecting the site.

The statue, by the late Irish sculptor Jeanne Rynhart, was unveiled on Grafton Street in 1988 before the construction of a tram line prompted a move to Suffolk Street, just over half a mile away, in 2014.

The council has not discounted the possibility of relocating it once again, and has also mooted the possibility of rendering the bronze less accessible by installing a taller plinth or railings.

But those considerations must be balanced against the expense involved and the need to maintain the sculpture as a safe tourist attraction, said the council.

Norwegian tourist Anders Oustid, 42, told The Guardian said he doesn’t think people should be stopped, and called it a ‘fun gimmick’, adding that ‘It’s good luck and apparently means that you’ll get to come back to Dublin’.

Mars Masana, 33, from Barcelona, who touched the cleavage on a previous visit, said: ‘I suppose in Spain we would feel the same if people were touching such a statue all the time.’

17-year-old Elaja Declercq from Belgium obeyed the orders but regretted the decision saying that she understood the feelings that it was inappropriate but insisted that it was a tradition worth keeping.

Campaigner Ms Cripwell previosuly told Good Morning Britain: ‘I would like for her to be raised on a higher statue to symbolically and physically elevate her, and prevent people from clambering all over her.’

But she faced backlash on social media, with people reminding the student that the model is ‘a statue, not a real person’.

‘Imagine a life so dull and empty that you start a campaign to move a statue because you think it’s being touch inappropriately. It’s not a real person,’ one wrote on X.

‘Oh please be quiet! It’s a statue not a real person!’ another said.

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Dublin council calls in guards to stop tourists touching breasts of Molly Malone’s statue after claims the good-luck gesture is damaging her assets

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