Discover Dublin's Famous Statues and Memorials

Statues are a typical feature of the Dublin landscape. However a number of previously prominent monuments have been removed or destroyed. The Famine Memorial was erected in 1997 to commemorate the food crisis of the nineteenth century which caused the country to lose over one million residents to starvation or emigration. The statue of Jim Larkin faces Clerys department store. Larkin was a founder and the first leader of the Irish Labour Party. His outstretched hands are a symbol encouraging workers to rise up, as Larkin spent his life toiling for the betterment of workers in Dublin, who at the time had some of the worst conditions in Europe. Molly Malone is the character in a song that is considered a Dublin anthem, called ‘Cockles and Mussels.’ The character of Molly worked both as a fishmonger and a working girl, and died in a cholera outbreak – which was common at the time in the city. Patrick Kavanagh is one of Ireland’s favourite poets. A statue commemorating his contributions to literature about rural Ireland sits near Dublin’s Grand Canal, as was requested in one of the writer’s poems. Many of Dublin’s statues have been given lewd nicknames. Molly Malone is known as “the Tart with the Cart,” James Joyce as “The Prick with the stick,” and Oscar Wilde as, “The Fag on the Crag.” Even the Monument of Light is known by several nicknames, such as “The Spire in the Mire,” “The Stiffy by the Liffey,” and “The Stiletto in the Ghetto.” Bawdy nicknames notwithstanding, Dublin’s statues are some of the most important elements of the city’s landscape, and are visited by many.