Dublin is teaching its statues to speak. Or at least how to call you on your smartphone.
The Talking Statues project, funded by tourism office Fáilte Ireland and a number of others, places a blue plaque with a QR code near statues; when you scan the code into your phone, or enter the URL in a browser, it triggers a call to your phone, with a recorded presentation spoken as if by the statue.
Most are historic and literary figures such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and James Connolly, but others include allegorical figures, and, of course, Molly Malone, the legendary 18th-century seafood seller who is commemorated in the song Alive, Alive-oh!
Molly’s wistful and humorous story, written by an American exchange student at University College in Cork. Her statue, outside a church on Suffolk Street, has become Dublin’s most photographed monument and, as you can see in the photo, most touched. In the monologue, ‘Molly’ points out that “People can be a little too familiar with me, though—not my fault I’m stuck in this dress…The things people do sometimes, and all in the shadow of a church!
