Dublin’s sweet Molly Malone

MANY Irish people need but a small excuse for a party. Whatever the occasion, we are ready; be it a small family gathering or a major bash. That is all very fine for individuals or families but when officialdom gets in on the act, it is probably taking it a bit too far. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that our Government might just decide that we need a party to distract us from all our financial woes.

In the 1970s and early ’80s, Dublin Corporation was embroiled in controversy caused by their decision to build their new civic offices on Wood Quay. Somebody decided that in 1988 there should be a celebration of 1,000 years of Dublin – the Millennium. At the start of their millennium, a press conference was called to announce that the baptismal records of the great Dublin character Molly Malone had been found and that a statue should be erected in her honour.
This was all very fine and grand, except for the fact that Dublin was at least 100 years older, having been founded by the Vikings around 840. Similarly, with the song Cockles and Mussels, while there may have been many Mary/Molly Malones in Dublin, the lady of the song, which was written by a James Yorkston possibly in Edinburgh probably never existed. Nobody seemed to think it ironic that the graveyard where the Dublin Molly was supposedly buried was part of the area bulldozed to make room for the civic offices on Wood Quay.
There are records of Cockles and Mussels being published in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1883 and then in London the following year. In the London version, the composer is named as James Yorkston and there was an acknowledgement that the song was printed with the permission of Kohlers of Edinburgh, so there must have been an earlier Scottish version. As years passed and the song became associated with Dublin, Yorkston’ s name was forgotten. Yorkston was seemingly Scottish, so the song is far from an Irish traditional one. Just like I’ll Take You Home again Kathleen, which was written by a gentleman named Westendorf in Illinois and Pat Murphy’s Meadow, written by a man named JM Devine about a meadow in Newfoundland.
Be that as it may, Molly was reputed to have been a fishmonger, who plied her trade in Dublin’s fair city. Selling fish was not supposed to have been her only livelihood and seemingly at night she was to be found around Dame Street, where she was supposedly very popular with the gentlemen attending Trinity College.
The press conference called at the start of Dublin’s Millennium announced that she had been born Mary Malone near Fishamble Street in 1663 and baptised in St John’s Church. If she was the real Molly, then she was definitely around before the song. There were also records of possibly the same Mary Malone being buried on June 13, 1699. Heaven alone knows how many Mary/Molly Malones were born and died in Dublin in the 17th century but does it matter? The legend of Molly is there and the song is there, albeit written by a Scot.
According to the Dublin Millennium organisers, Molly Malone was born near Fishamble Street in Dublin and baptised in St John’s Church on July 27, 1663, 347 years ago this week.