June 13 was declared 'Molly Malone Day' in Dublin in 1988. However, one historian asserts that the iconic Molly Malone was invented to ridicule the Irish.
"Molly Malone," the popular folk song about a beautiful fishmonger, was written in Edinburgh in 1883 by James Yorkston and may have been written for comic purposes, says Professor Daithi O hOgain, from University College Dublin.
"In the concert halls during the Victorian era, various races were ridiculed to a certain extent. 'Molly Malone' may have been composed in Scotland to mock Irish people and their songs," he said, according to the Irish Independent.
"I believe it was a comic song. It was not a tragic story, which was the theme in many Irish ballads."
In "Scealta Atha Cliath," a TG4 series that aired in Ireland in 2011, historical author Eoin Bairead agrees that the name Molly Malone was a moniker for a simple Irish girl in the 19th century.
Whether or not she was real, Molly Malone is remembered with a bronze statue that was first unveiled on Dublin's Grafton Street but has since been relocated to Suffolk Street.
The song "Molly Malone" has also become the unofficial anthem of Dublin people and is sung at every major GAA game Dublin plays and often also at Irish soccer and rugby matches.
Check out this IrishCentral Spotify playlist of some of the top versions of "Molly Malone":
And here are the lyrics to "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 wheelbarrow
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 both wheeled their barrows
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 died of a fever
And no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
But her ghost wheels her 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
Alive, alive, oh
Alive, alive, oh
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh
* Originally published in 2016, updated in June 2024.
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