Molly Malone
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"Molly Malone" (also known as "Cockles and Mussels") is a popular song which has acquired the status of an Irish anthem. It has become 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 ]], as well as featured in A clockwork orange, and tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but died young, of a fever.
Molly is commemorated in a statue designed by Jeanne Rynhart [1], placed at the top 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 Dish With The Fish' 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. The name "Molly" originated as a familiar version of the names Mary and Margaret. While many such "Molly" Malones were born in Dublin over the centuries, 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.
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[edit] Lyrics
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, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh",
Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".
She was a fishmonger,
And sure 'twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother 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.
The term "fishmonger" may be connected to prostitution. Shakespeare in Hamlet, act two, scene two, Hamlet calls and Polonius a 'fishmonger', referring to slang for a pimp. The "cockles and mussels" may also point in that direction, strengthening the ambiguity of the song.
[edit] Parody
Londoners adapt the song for their own needs often in a light vein, the major change being the lines:
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through Wealdstone and Harrow (pronounced Arra in this instance)
An altered first verse of the song is usually sung by supporters of Bohemian FC in Dublin. The changes being:
In Dublin's fair city,
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying (clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap) Bohs (pronunciation / bo-iz /)[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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