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Rolling News/Leah Farrell

Dublin's Wax Museum is probably not the place to honour someone like Sinéad O'Connor

The model of O’Connor was unveiled in the museum’s Star Wars section.

DUBLIN’S NATIONAL WAX Museum Plus on Thursday unveiled a commemorative waxwork of legendary Irish musician Sinéad O’Connor, marking a year since the singer’s untimely passing. 

The response to the sculpture has been mixed so far, with many online commentators critiquing the quality of the likeness. Others questioned the propriety of the sculpture’s unveiling, which took place in the Star Wars section of the museum and saw the model of O’Connor flanked by the likes of Darth Vader and Yoda.

Those who took issue with the accuracy of the sculpture made comparisons to Thunderbird figurines. If there is a defence to be made on that front, surely, it’s that that is the nature of waxwork sculptures. If you’re making something out of wax, obviously it’s going to look a little bit uncanny, no matter how much work goes into it. The question isn’t really: “Is this waxwork sculpture accurate?” It’s a bit more like: “Why do we do this in the first place?”

It’s not that the rendition itself is an egregiously insulting likeness. No, it doesn’t quite look like Sinéad O’Connor, but it looks like it looks like Sinéad O’Connor. It’s more that that wax museums, by their nature, are probably not the correct venue to honour to such an icon of Irish culture – particular one so recently passed, and one whose relationship with fame was so cruel. 

Wax Museum-012_90710325 Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

The National Wax Museum Plus on Westmoreland Street is like walking through a dream. Not necessarily a bad dream, but quite obviously not a good dream either. Just… a dream. At the end of the haunted hotel section of the museum, for example, one turns a corner immediately into the waxwork signing of the Good Friday Agreement, replete with waxwork John Hume and the Reverend Ian Paisley (also waxwork) – an assemblage ripped clean from the darkest depths of the subconscious. 

Elsewhere in the History of Ireland section, a waxwork James Connolly lies wounded, tended to by Patrick Pearse (who, and I cannot stress this enough, is also a waxwork sculpture). All of these waxworks – which include Robert Emmett, Daniel O’Connell and Constance Markiewicz – are accompanied by explanatory panels, as they would be in any non-wax-based museum. It is not uneducational. Look, if this is what we need to do to get children and Americans to learn about Irish history, then that’s how it is.

On another floor, there is a small Christmas section that has Santa Claus in behind the window of a small cottage, on a bed with his eyes closed, giving the unmistakeable impression of a man lying in repose. Yards away from Santa, there is a deeply unsettling approximation of Homer and Marge Simpson – each of their faces carved into a sinister rictus, with Marge looking more like Moe Szyslak in a blue wig than anything else.  

With the best will in the world, there are questions to be asked as to whether someone like Sinéad O’Connor truly fits in against this backdrop either figuratively or, in the case of the Star Wars characters surrounding her, literally. 

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The tour ended with a pack of attendees huddled around a velvet curtain, around two metres away from statues of Darth Vader, Yoda, a young Anakin Skywalker and Jedward (who are not part of the Star Wars universe. They were also sufficiently lifelike that upon bumping into John and/or Edward I was moved to apologise as if to a living, breathing human).

After a suspense-building countdown, the curtain was drawn back to reveal the sculpture of O’Connor. Because of O’Connor’s placement, the removal of the curtain also revealed Liam Neeson as Jedi Master Qui Gon Jin, standing with his lightsaber drawn, ready for battle.

“I think she would be happy with it. I think it’s put her forward as a serious artist. We didn’t have her with this great big smile,” said Paddy Dunning, the managing director of the National Wax Museum. Asked by a journalist whether O’Connor would appreciate the placement of the model alongside Star Wars villain Darth Vader, Dunning said that he thought that she would.

“We didn’t want to do the ripping up of the Pope,” Dunning said, alluding to the controversial incident in which Sinéad O’Connor condemned child abuse endemic to the Catholic Church while tearing apart a photograph of Pope John Paul II during a performance on Saturday Night Live. O’Connor’s career suffered greatly in the aftermath of the protest and, in the years that followed, the singer was frank about her struggles with mental health. 

Instead, Dunning and the museum opted for O’Connor in a iconic black turtleneck based on the outfit she wore in the music video for Nothing Compares 2 U.

“We found that this was where she was poignant, where she was brilliant, where she was fabulous, where she was unique,” Dunning said. “That was the focus of the setting of the figure.” The figure was created by PJ Heraty, who has been making waxworks for 40 years. Heraty said that this O’Connor sculpture took him nine months, and that it will be his final work.

Dunning further explained that the intention is to move the statue between the waxwork museum and the Irish Rock N’ Roll Museum in Temple Bar, which Dunning also manages. 

While much of the online criticism of the sculpture has been humorous in nature, others have taken the matter more seriously and queried whether or not an artist with O’Connor’s integrity would appreciate the spectacle. Dunning says that the singer gave the project her blessing.  

“We had discussed it down at Grouse Lodge,” said Dunning, referring to the Westmeath recording studio where O’Connor had recorded in the past, which he owns. “I always wanted to do a waxwork figure of her, but it wasn’t until the last time she was down at Grouse Lodge that she said ‘Go ahead.’”

Any debate around whether or not O’Connor would have appreciated her likeness on display in the Wax Museum is doomed to go around in circles without Sinéad here to tell us how she feels about it. 

But regardless of the likeness, O’Connor’s fans will surely remember the singer very differently than the wax figure now on display in Dublin. And not just because she never hung out with Darth Vader.

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34 Comments
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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute jason rooney
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:07 PM

    No likeness to sinead in anyway,

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Jul 25th 2024, 11:06 PM

    @jason rooney: the point of view expressed in this article is the first sensible commentary I’ve seen on the story of her wax museum image.

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    Mute reg morrisey
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    Jul 26th 2024, 12:32 PM

    @jak: lol brilliant. You win.

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    Mute Dave Grant
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:07 PM

    The Final Insult.

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    Mute Gerard Carey
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:30 PM

    It looks like something that hopped off a UFO.

    109
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    Mute well done to all the rescue teams
    Favourite well done to all the rescue teams
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:21 PM

    horrendous, ghastly,
    remove it please..so insulting to her…

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    Mute aidan martin
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:00 PM

    A statue of a real likeness in bray would be better

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    Mute Unridden Ana
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:31 PM

    Well that monstrosity certainly doesn’t compare to her!

    The Irish was museum is like a parody of Madame Tussaud’s

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    Mute Athena
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    Jul 25th 2024, 9:48 PM

    @Unridden Ana: That’s what you get doing stuff on the cheap.

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    Mute Smelly Head
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    Jul 26th 2024, 11:32 AM

    @Unridden Ana: was gonna say the same. Can’t think of one wax figure that doesn’t look ridiculous in there

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    Mute Frankie Gozetahollywood
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:40 PM

    As a country we really need to have a frank and honest conversation about shutting down the wax museum….

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    Mute Benny Mchale
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:09 PM

    It’s not a definitive Sinead memorial. It’s a waxworks and anyone remotely famous is entitled to be there. Nonsense article. Must be silly season.

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    Mute David O Brien
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:24 PM

    That lady is a legend end of story Nothing but respect for her

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    Mute Willie Marty
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:43 PM

    @David O Brien: nothing compares.

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    Mute Mick Joe
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    Jul 25th 2024, 8:27 PM

    @David O Brien: Not even close to being a legend

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jul 26th 2024, 11:11 AM

    @David O Brien:
    Hang on,
    I though Christy Moore was the legend

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    Mute Alex Kemp
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:17 PM

    Looks more like Keith wood

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:19 PM

    @Alex Kemp: Grant Mitchell?

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    Mute Alex Marquis
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:32 PM

    @Alex Kemp: Telly Savalas, Yul Brynner.

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    Mute JB Software
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    Jul 25th 2024, 9:39 PM

    @Pól Pot: go on, gurr outta ma pub for that comment…

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    Mute Mannix Loganfxxx
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    Jul 25th 2024, 6:11 PM

    Looks like Raymond Van Barneveld

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    Mute Siobhan
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    Jul 25th 2024, 11:55 PM

    particularly when 4 year olds could do better with mála.

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    Mute Mick Scanlan
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    Jul 25th 2024, 8:00 PM

    Looks like the bloke who is charged with looting in November. If that’s the best you can do leave it alone

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    Mute Jo H
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    Jul 25th 2024, 10:19 PM

    It doesn’t bear any likeness to Sinéad, it might be a good job it’s his last one based on the resemblance ‘achieved’

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    Mute James T.Kirk
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:40 PM

    Right said Fred.

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    Mute Trevor McCormack
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    Jul 25th 2024, 7:00 PM

    Jason Statham

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    Mute pauley870
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    Jul 26th 2024, 8:28 AM

    at the end of the day it’s a Waxwork, get over it

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jul 26th 2024, 11:07 AM

    Looks more like Paul Murphy the TD

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    Mute socheallaigh
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    Jul 25th 2024, 11:45 PM

    Sinead would likely be angry and disgusted. Melt it down and show a bit of cop on.

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    Mute IMHO
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    Jul 26th 2024, 2:14 PM

    Surely with AI so prevalent, it shouldn’t be too difficult to create life like sculptures these days,along the lines of 3d printing…?

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    Mute Jipangu
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    Jul 26th 2024, 11:49 AM

    Wax museums have to be the most pointless institutions in the world. Full of groups of people debating whether the lump of wax they happen to be staring at looks like the queen or Paul McCartney or whoever the sign next to it claims that it looks like.

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    Mute Richard Scratcher
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    Jul 26th 2024, 12:41 PM

    Stevie Wonder’s finest work yet.

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    Mute I Am
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    Jul 26th 2024, 6:15 PM

    Are we putting mediocrity on a pedestal?

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    Mute reg morrisey
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    Jul 26th 2024, 12:34 PM

    Journal do a poll.
    Would Sinead o Connor have liked this Waxwork of herself?

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