Shelbourne hotel statues returned to their plinths Updated / Tuesday, 15 Dec 2020 17:30 The statues, depicting women holding torches, have been a familiar sight there for 153 years (Pic: RollingNews.ie) Four statues that were temporarily removed from plinths outside the Shelbourne hotel in Dublin last July have been reinstated. The statues, depicting women holding torches, have been a familiar sight there for 153 years but they were taken down after being mistakenly identified as slaves. Their reinstatement follows a special report on the statues by Paula Murphy, one of Ireland's foremost experts on sculpture, which was carried out in order to fully understand the provenance of the statues and place them within their proper context.