Molly Malone

Molly Malone has become the focus of the unofficial song for Dublin and is often heard at sporting occasions involving Irish interest both at home and abroad. Molly Malone was a young and beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade in Dublin by ‘wheeling a wheel barrow’. Tragically she died of a fever at a very young age.

A statue stands at the bottom of Grafton Street in Dublin City Center to commemorate Molly Malone. The statue is a popular meeting point for Dubliners who have used their traditional wit to nickname the statue, ‘the tart with the cart’, ‘the fish wit the disk’ and ‘the trollop with the scallops’.

Although there is no proof of the existence of this particular Molly Malone, the song is based on a real person. The song was written by James Yorkston of Edinburgh in a tragic-come mode that was popular at the time.

Molly Malone

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 muscles, 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)

Now I was a Rover,
And sailed the seas over,
So I bid my farewell to sweet Molly Malone.
And as I was sailing,
The wild wind was wailing,
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)

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