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.
The museum’s team met on Friday morning and decided to pull 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 that 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Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Liveline programme on Friday, after it was announced the figure would be withdrawn, he said he was not made aware that a waxwork of his sister was to be unveiled this week.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.
“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.”
O’Connor said if people wanted to honour her memory they should put a statue of her in Dublin, and queried how something like this could be done.
“There’s also enough visual stuff out there, in terms of videos and photos, that show what she did look like.”
He said it was particularly upsetting to speak about the issue on Friday, which marks the one-year anniversary since the famous Irish musician died at the age of 56.
“I lost my sister and to me that’s important. 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 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.
“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.”
Asked by O’Connor on the radio programme whether they were “doing this to get publicity”, Dunning said “no, absolutely not”.
“The wax museum runs itself without publicity. We have a launch and that’s it.”
He added: “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.”