The Tart with the Cart; The Dish with the Fish; The Dolly with the Trolley

[Kilmatead]

Stewards to patrol Molly Malone statue to discourage 'groping'

While every denizen dweller in all the world knows that their county councils are populated by tossers, it's lost on my why said tossers feel the need to continually prove their provenance.

[nikos]

april fool, no?

[Kilmatead]

Dublin City Council Arts Officer Ray Yeates said the practice has caused "worry and discomfort" and he has concerns about the safety of people perching on the plinth to touch the statue.

He added that this is not an April Fool's Day joke.

Yeah, the first thought would be an April Fools thing (which, to be honest, isn't really done here), except Ray Yeates really is part of the Dublin City Council and it would be more in keeping to just attribute it to "an unnamed source" instead of having him explicitly state otherwise. Raidió Teilifís Éireann is the state-broadcaster who've had more than enough troubles this year without publishing fake nonsense.

Also, the City Council really is this stupid. There are other articles where in Wales and Scotland the city councils keep walling off (or raising off the ground) statues of lions and bears to "protect them" - as if the natural oxidisation process (the dark colour) is what must be preserved, and bronzed sculptures can't be reinterpreted through interaction with the environment.

As is usually the case, councils' "advising consultants" are not intelligent people.

[Tuxman]

There are also (bare-breasted) statues of women in a few German cities. When I once showed a visitor around Braunschweig, she was particularly taken with ours - she said it was unusual that the breast area of this statue hadn't already become shiny from all the rubbing.

People are strange.