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<\/p>\nIrish social media star James Patrice stepped into his Malahide Mammy character for the campaign<\/p>\n
20:36, 06 Mar 2026Updated 20:40, 06 Mar 2026<\/p>\n
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A screenshot of the advertising campaign. <\/p>\n
Dublin Zoo has said it is \u201cdisappointed\u201d at some of the online discourse surrounding an advertising campaign for the zoo’s All-Things-Irish Takeover next week.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Dublin Zoo launched its \u2018mams go free\u2019 offer for Mother\u2019s Day to help families celebrate moms around the country<\/a>, offering a complimentary adult ticket when a full paying adult or child ticket is purchased online next Sunday.<\/p>\n The special offer for Mother\u2019s Day also forms part of Dublin Zoo\u2019s All-Things-Irish Takeover, running from March 14 to 17, where the beloved zoo will become a vibrant celebration of \u201cIrish warmth, humour, community and heritage\u201d.<\/p>\n As part of the launch campaign, Dublin Zoo<\/a> recruited Irish social media star and TV presenter James Patrice as the ambassador for the takeover, who donned his well-known Malahide Mammy character, which the zoo has said is rooted in \u201chumour and fun\u201d.<\/p>\n Visitors are invited to celebrate four days of activities and entertainment, with a special \u2018Mams Go Free\u2019 offer on Sunday, 15 March(Image: Patrick Bolger Photography)<\/p>\n Despite a mostly positive reaction to the campaign, there has been a backlash across social media from some politicians and members of the public, who slammed the campaign, including Independent Ireland TD Ken O\u2019Flynn and Senator Sharon Keogan, taking umbrage with the use of the ‘Malahide Mammy’ character for the light-hearted campaign.<\/p>\n Dublin Zoo has said they are “disappointed” in some of the commentary on social media after the launch of the campaign, stressing that James Patrice was chosen as the ambassador for the entire campaign, and that the Mother\u2019s Day promotion forms just one part of this campaign.<\/p>\n The team added that the social media star was picked because of his \u201cstrong connection with Irish audiences and his well-known, light-hearted celebration of Irish culture\u201d, underlying that James\u2019 character is a \u201clong-established comedic persona rooted in humour and fun\u201d.<\/p>\n The Malahide Mammy (James Patrice) launches Dublin Zoo\u2019s All-Things-Irish Takeover (Image: Patrick Bolger)<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Dublin Zoo told the Irish Mirror: \u201cDublin Zoo recently launched its \u2018All Things Irish Takeover\u2019 campaign, celebrating Irish culture across St Patrick\u2019s Day weekend and Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n \u201cJames Patrice was appointed as ambassador for the overall Takeover campaign, reflecting his strong connection with Irish audiences and his well-known, light-hearted celebration of Irish culture.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of the campaign content, James appears in character as \u2018Malahide Woman\u2019, a long-established comedic persona rooted in humour and fun.<\/p>\n \u201cMother\u2019s Day forms one element of the wider Takeover, including our annual \u2018Mams Go Free\u2019 offer and themed activities taking place across the period. The ambassador role relates to the full Irish-themed campaign, not to any single promotional day.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we are disappointed that some commentary on social media has taken elements of the campaign out of context, Dublin Zoo remains proud to be a place that welcomes people from all backgrounds and communities every day. We look forward to celebrating Irish culture and welcoming everyone, including mams, to the Zoo over the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? <\/strong>Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a><\/strong> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply <\/strong>click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish social media star James Patrice stepped into his Malahide Mammy character for the campaign 20:36, 06 Mar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,96008,18,13,14,6,19,4723,17,11,12,15,16,161231,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-371946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin-zoo","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-in-the-news","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mothers-day","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116185383864179694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_REPRO_FREE_Dublin_Zoo_03.jpg\")
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