Molly Malone
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"Molly Malone" (also known as "Cockles And Mussels") is the unofficial anthem of Dublin City in
Ireland. The song is sung by supporters of Dublin GAA, Leinster Rugby teams and Irish international
rugby team, and tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but
died young, of a fever.
Statue of Molly on Grafton Street
Molly is commemorated in a statue designed by Jeanne Rynhart [1], placed at the bottom of Grafton
Street in Dublin, erected to celebrate the city's first millennium in 1987; this statue is known colloquially
as 'The Tart With The Cart', 'The Fish With The Dish' and 'The Trollop With The Scallops'. The statue
portrays Molly as a busty young woman in seventeenth-century dress, and is claimed to represent the real
person on whom the song is based. Her low-cut dress and large breasts were justified on the grounds that
as 'women breastfed publicly in Molly's time, breasts were popped out all over the place'. [2]
An urban legend has grown up around the figure of the historical Molly, who has been presented
variously as a hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night, or - in contrast - as one of the few chaste
female street-hawkers of her day.
However, there is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman who lived in the 17th century, or at
any other time, despite claims that records of her birth and death have been located. Certainly, there were
many Mary or Molly Malones born in Dublin over the centuries, but no evidence connects any of them to
the events in the song, which was not recorded earlier than the early 1880s, when it was published as a
work written and composed by James Yorkston, of Edinburgh. The song is in a familiar tragi-comic
mode popular in this period, probably influenced by earlier songs with a similar theme, such as Percy
Montross's "My Darling Clementine", which was written circa 1880.
In Dublin's fair city,
where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive alive oh!"
"Alive-a-live-oh,
Alive-a-live-oh",
Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive alive oh".
She was a fishmonger,
And sure 'twas no wonder,
For so were her mother and father before,
And they each wheeled their barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh!"
(chorus)
She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
Now her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh!"
(chorus)
Note on pronunciation: Before the Great Vowel Shift, /i:/ was pronounced as /eɪ/ This pronunciation
lingered in Ireland and Scotland (where the song was written) after it had virtually disappeared from
England. The word 'fever' would have been pronounced as 'favour', rhyming with 'save her' in the next
line. That pronunciation is still sometimes used in this song, particularly in Ireland.
[edit] References
Roger Corman's 1962 film "The Premature Burial" prominently features the song throughout.
In the movie A Clockwork Orange, there is a drunken vagrant singing the song.
In the M*A*S*H episode "That's Show Biz" a USO troupe visits the camp and the song is perfomed by
one of the troup for the patients in Post-Op.
In Helsinki, Finland, Molly Malone's is the name of the city's most famous Irish Pub.
In Bilbao, Spain, there is a famous pub named Molly Malone.
The song "Eli, the Barrow Boy," from The Decemberists album Picaresque could be interpreted as
another side to Molly Malone.
In Disney Channel Original Movie "Luck of the Irish" a group of leprechauns sing the song while
drinking in celebration of finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow towards the end of the film.
[edit] See also
•
Dublin statues and their nicknames
[edit] External links
•
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Molly Malone
Molly Malone
Molly Malone "Cockles And Mussels" diverse songs and Clip courtesy of Dan O'Donnell.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone"
•
Categories: Culture in Dublin | Irish folk songs | Ballads
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• This page was last modified 23:21, 6 January 2007.
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