Just don’t ask me what I think of mussels.

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DUBLIN ICON MOLLY Malone has finally been given a voice as part of the Dublin’s Talking Statues project.

Malone is voiced by actress Maria Doyle Kennedy and the script is provided by US student, Michaela McMahon who won an open public competition to pen the words spoken by the statue.

McMahon won the competition after she had just completed a semester abroad at University College Cork.

“I had to try and solve different challenges with this project; how do you write from the perspective of a figure who is more of an amalgamation or symbol, and how do you do that in a way that catches the attention of the public?

“The song ‘Molly Malone’ is really the only time that we picture her, so I tried to make her character a little more defined for people, to make her more than the girl in the song,” McMahon said.

Lord Mayor of Dublin Niall Ring said Dubliner’s and visitors alike will once again hear her voice ring through the streets of Dublin.

The Molly Malone statue was one of our original “moving statues” – now she is one of our first “talking statues.

The Molly Malone statue is one of eleven talking statues now in operation around the city.

Their voices can be heard when passersby by use their smartphone to swipe a QR code with each of monologue designed to bring the stories of the statues and Dublin to life.

Listen out for the Fidelity/Daniel O Connell Monument voiced by Ruth Negga, the James Joyce statue voiced by Gabriel Byrne and the James Connolly statue voiced by Brendan O’Carroll.