Visitors to Dublin city centre haven't been seeing things - the city's O'Connell Street has indeed been taken over by giant, dancing, drumming, cricket-playing hares.
The eye-catching bronze hares are part of an outdoor exhibition of work by world-renowned sculptor Barry Flanagan and and will be in place until September.
Barry Flanagan in Dublin's O'Connell Streetis the inaugural outdoor exhibition of Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and is described as a celebration of the recent rejuvenation work on the street.
Large Leaping Hare (1982) by Barry Flanagan. The sculpture is located outside the Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin as part of a summer outdoor exhibition.
Barbara Dawson, director of the gallery and curator of the exhibition, said it will be the first in a series of annual events which will bring art onto the streets for the public to enjoy. In all, the Dublin installation includes nine hares and an elephant and cougar duo.
It is Mr Flanagan's first large-scale outdoor exhibition in Ireland.
A retrospective exhibition of 50 of the artist's sculptures also opens this evening at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin.
Ms Dawson said the exhibition had been organised in such a way that all the hare sculptures face north, drawing the viewer up O'Connell Street.
"Barry's work is monumental and yet funny. It's iconic and yet it's irreverent and I really do think that fits into the contemporary spirit of Dublin."
Ms Dawson said the artist's work was like "Plato meets Walt Disney".
"I somehow feel that Dubliners really like the spirit of this. I think that when people enjoy something, like it or are curious about it, it's not an adversary, so our hope is that people will embrace it so that we can do this annual exhibition next year with another artist and another art form."
Welsh-born Barry Flanagan lives and works in Dublin. Galleries in Paris, Milan, New York, Barcelona, Salzburg, Brussels, New York, Tokyo and other cities have hosted solo exhibitions by the sculptor.
He is also represented in public collections at prestigious galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate in London.
Those on display in Dublin include acrobatic hares and one entitled "Thinker on a Rock," after the iconic sculpture The Thinkerby 20th century French artist Auguste Rodin.