"Cockles and Mussels" (also "Molly Malone" or "In
Dublin's Fair City") is a popular song set in Dublin,
Ireland, which has become its unofficial anthem. A
statue representing Molly Malone was unveiled on
Grafton Street by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ben
Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium
celebrations, when 13 June was declared to be Molly
Malone Day. In July 2014, the statue was relocated to
Suffolk Street, in front of the Tourist Information
Office, to make way for Luas track-laying work...(+)
"Cockles and Mussels" (also "Molly Malone" or "In
Dublin's Fair City") is a popular song set in Dublin,
Ireland, which has become its unofficial anthem. A
statue representing Molly Malone was unveiled on
Grafton Street by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ben
Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium
celebrations, when 13 June was declared to be Molly
Malone Day. In July 2014, the statue was relocated to
Suffolk Street, in front of the Tourist Information
Office, to make way for Luas track-laying work at the
old location.
The song tells the fictional tale of a fishwife who
plied her trade on the streets of Dublin and died
young, of a fever. In the late 20th century, a legend
grew up that there was a historical Molly, who lived in
the 17th century. She is typically represented as a
hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night. In
contrast, she has also been portrayed as one of the few
chaste female street hawkers of her day.
There is no evidence that the song is based on a real
woman in the 17th century or any other time. The name
"Molly" originated as a familiar version of the names
Mary and Margaret. Many such "Molly" Malones were born
in Dublin over the centuries, but no evidence connects
any of them to the events in the song. Nevertheless,
the Dublin Millennium Commission in 1988 endorsed
claims made for a Mary Malone who died on 13 June 1699,
and proclaimed 13 June to be "Molly Malone Day".
The song is not recorded earlier than 1876, when it was
published in Boston, Massachusetts. Its placement in
the section of the book titled "Songs from English and
German Universities" suggests an Irish origin. It was
also published by Francis Brothers and Day in London in
1884 as a work written and composed by James Yorkston,
of Edinburgh, with music arranged by Edmund Forman. The
London edition states that it was reprinted by
permission of Kohler and Son of Edinburgh, implying
that the first edition was in Scotland, but no copies
of it have been found. According to Siobhán Marie
Kilfeather, the song is from the music hall style of
the period, and one cannot wholly dismiss the
possibility that it is "based on an older folk song",
but "neither melody nor words bear any relationship to
the Irish tradition of street ballads". She calls the
story of the historical Molly "nonsense". The song is
in a familiar tragicomic mode that was then popular and
was probably influenced by earlier songs with a similar
theme, such as Percy Montrose's "Oh My Darling,
Clementine", which was written in about 1880.
A variant, "Cockles and Mussels", with some different
lyrics, appeared in Students' Songs: Comprising the
Newest and Most Popular College Songs As Now Sung at
Harvard, Yale, Columbia, ... Union, Etc in 1884.
A copy of Apollo's Medley, dating from around 1790,
published in Doncaster and rediscovered in 2010,
contains a song referring to "Sweet Molly Malone" on
page 78 that ends with the line "Och! I'll roar and
I'll groan, My sweet Molly Malone, Till I'm bone of
your bone, And asleep in your bed." Other than this
name and the fact that she lives in Howth, near Dublin,
this song bears no resemblance to Molly Malone. The
song was later reprinted in the collection The
Shamrock: A Collection of Irish Songs (1831) and was
published in The Edinburgh Literary Journal that year
with the title "Molly Malone".
Some elements of the song appear in several earlier
songs. A character named Molly Malone appears in at
least two other songs. The song "Widow Malone,"
published as early as 1809, refers to the title
character alternately as "Molly Malone," "Mary Malone"
and "sweet mistress Malone". An American song, "Meet Me
Miss Molly Malone", was published as early as 1840. The
song "Pat Corney's Account of Himself", published as
early as 1826, begins, "Now it's show me that city
where the girls are so pretty" and ends, "Crying
oysters, and cockles, and Mussels for sale." During the
19th century, the expression "Dublin's fair city" was
used regularly in reference to Dublin, and the phrase
"alive, alive O" is known to have been shouted by
street vendors selling oysters, mussels, fish and eels.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone).
Although originally written for Traditional Irish
instruments, I created this Interpretation of the Irish
Air "Cockles and Mussels" Flute & Celtic or Concert
(Pedal) Harp.
PARTITION