Belfast

Let’s visit one more contemporary Irish statue that has been controversial and has been given a number of quirky, irreverent names. This one is in Belfast, Northern Ireland, not Dublin. Nonetheless, the Irish humor is unmistakable.

Image By Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9175428

The idea was to honor the many roles of women both at work and home and in the community. Formally known as the “Monument to the Unknown Woman worker”, the fact that it was placed in the former red-light district left it open to degrading wordplay:

Ladies of the Night

Working girls

Shady Ladies

More of the Whores.

The statue is easy to miss on the way to the Europa Bus station but is well worth a look. I had to go into a nearby pharmacy to get a proper name and explanation (as well as hear the other names.)

The more I studied the two women the more I appreciated how well the statute depicted the hard lives of poor, overworked, and underpaid females of their time. It is a meaningful piece that should not be taken lightly.

Belfast also has a statue dubbed “Nuala with the Hula”,  one nicknamed  “Balls on the Falls” and another “Thing with the Ring”, but I think I should stop now. LOL. Read more on this statue.