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Sinéad O’Connor waxwork pulled from Dublin museum after backlash | |
(32 minutes later) | |
Irish singer’s brother speaks of shock at ‘hideous’ figure which ‘looked nothing like her’ | Irish singer’s brother speaks of shock at ‘hideous’ figure which ‘looked nothing like her’ |
Dublin’s wax museum is withdrawing a figure of Sinéad O’Connor amid criticism from her family and members of the public that it looked “nothing like her”. | Dublin’s wax museum is withdrawing a figure of Sinéad O’Connor amid criticism from her family and members of the public that it looked “nothing like her”. |
Many reacted with shock when the waxwork figure was unveiled on Thursday. | Many reacted with shock when the waxwork figure was unveiled on Thursday. |
The museum’s team met on Friday morning and decided to remove the waxwork of the Irish singer, admitting that it “can do better” and pledging to create a “more accurate representation”. | |
Her brother, John O’Connor, said he was shocked when he first saw it online and said it did not look like her “at all”. | |
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Liveline programme on Friday, after it was announced the figure would be withdrawn, he said he had not been made aware that a waxwork of his sister was to be unveiled this week. | |
“When I saw it online yesterday I was shocked. I thought it looked something between a mannequin and something out of the Thunderbirds. | “When I saw it online yesterday I was shocked. I thought it looked something between a mannequin and something out of the Thunderbirds. |
“I thought Sinéad would have been very fond of looking well, and she certainly did, and if it was supposed to be a representation of her in her early 20s when she did Nothing Compares 2 U, it just looked nothing like her. I thought it was hideous.” | “I thought Sinéad would have been very fond of looking well, and she certainly did, and if it was supposed to be a representation of her in her early 20s when she did Nothing Compares 2 U, it just looked nothing like her. I thought it was hideous.” |
He added: “A friend of mine said to me last night that he’d seen better in Shaws [department store], in the window. | |
“There’s also enough visual stuff out there, in terms of videos and photos, that show what she did look like.” | |
O’Connor suggested that a better way to honour his sister would be to put a statue of her in Dublin. | |
He said it was particularly upsetting to speak about the issue on Friday, the one-year anniversary of her death at the age of 56. | |
“I lost my sister and to me that’s important,” he told the radio station. “Since she’s not here to defend herself or to speak for herself, I just took it upon myself to contact you about it.” | |
Paddy Dunning, the wax museum director who said he was a longtime friend of Sinéad O’Connor, apologised to the family. | |
He said that the wax museum sculptor, PJ Heraghty, delivered the figure the night before it was unveiled. | |
He said the artist had done “fantastic work” in previous years but has not been feeling well and had retired. | He said the artist had done “fantastic work” in previous years but has not been feeling well and had retired. |
“When I had a look at the statue, I walked in to launch it, and when I saw it, I didn’t get that feeling that I normally get from PJ’s fantastic work,” he told Liveline. | “When I had a look at the statue, I walked in to launch it, and when I saw it, I didn’t get that feeling that I normally get from PJ’s fantastic work,” he told Liveline. |
“My heart sunk a bit. We went ahead with the launch and I didn’t sleep last night.” | “My heart sunk a bit. We went ahead with the launch and I didn’t sleep last night.” |
Asked by O’Connor on the radio programme if the Dublin National Wax Museum was “doing this to get publicity”, Dunning said: “No, absolutely not.” | |
He added: “The wax museum runs itself without publicity. We have a launch and that’s it. | |
“I had to take the decision to cancel the statue and we’ll go again and we’ll remodel and we have to do better on this occasion.” |