Yesterday, Dublin’s National Wax Museum Plus revealed its brand-new wax likeness of the great Dublin native Sinéad O’Connor, and people were not happy about it. The unveiling was timed to the first anniversary of O’Connor’s passing, and it was clearly intended as a gesture of respect, but yeah, no. They put her figure in their Star Wars section for some reason, and it doesn’t look anything like her. After the inevitable viral brouhaha, the museum has apologized.

RTÉ reports that the National Wax Museum Plus has removed its Sinéad O’Connor figure and that it will attempt to “create a more accurate representation” of her: “We have listened closely to the reactions and agree that the figure does not fully capture Sinéad’s unique presence and essence as we intended.” Reportedly, Paddy Dunning, the museum’s director and O’Connor’s friend, considered the figure and decided that the museum “can do better.” The statement doesn’t seem to say anything about why they put her in there with Darth Vader.

Meanwhile, the negative reactions keep coming in. John O’Connor, Sinéad’s brother, tells RTÉ that the figure is both “hideous” and “inappropriate” and that it resembles something “between a mannequin and something out of the Thunderbirds.” He adds that a statue in Dublin would be a more fitting tribute than a wax figure, and it’s hard to argue with that.

A wax sculpture of Sinéad O'Connor has been unveiled at the National Wax Museum in Dublin today pic.twitter.com/SP2EtkMWm4

— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 25, 2024

The new Sinead O'Connor wax work looks like they just found an old mannequin in a skip and said, yep that will do.
The absolute hack of it. pic.twitter.com/38L54uNKny

— Caolán Mc Aree (@Caolanmcaree) July 25, 2024