'Right decision' to remove McGregor wax work - museum

The National Wax Museum Plus has said it took the decision to remove a sculpture of Conor McGregor two weeks ago, as it felt it was the "right decision to make".

Last week, Nikita Hand won her High Court civil action against the MMA fighter when the jury found Mr McGregor raped her in a hotel in Dublin in December 2018 and awarded her almost €250,000 in damages.

Two weeks ago, before a verdict had been reached, the museum in Dublin city removed the sculpture of Mr McGregor which first went on display in 2017.

A spokesperson for the museum said that although there were no calls for it to be removed, it "regularly reviews exhibits" and following on from this the decision was made to take it off display.

"We regularly review our exhibits to make sure they align with our values and the expectations of visitors and at the time we felt it was the right decision to make."

The museum said the sculpture was "one of the more popular ones", especially among tourists who took a keen interest in it when they visited the museum.

"If you look at most photos online taken by people visiting the museum, a lot would be with McGregor," the spokesperson said.

"So it was one of our more popular ones, especially with tourists from various countries."

The sculpture was unveiled by the fighter's father Tony McGregor in August 2017.

At the time, some reaction on social media said the wax work did not look very much like Conor McGregor but the then General Manager Ed Coleman defended the likeness.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "Everybody who was there was very impressed with it. In fact we took it outside at one point for a photo opportunity and a couple of tourists walked by and I said 'Do you know who this is?'

"And they said: 'It's the fighter guy', so everybody knew who it was anyway and it went down well."

Additional reporting Colman O'Sullivan