song: The Dubliners – Molly Malone

July 12, 2012 | Posted by profanglais

Why this song? Because there’s a pub in Bordeaux called the Molly Malone, and I bet that not many people know that the song is a kind of unofficial anthem for Dublin. She’s a fictional character and the song is in the music hall style of the late 19th century. It seems to have originated in Scotland, not Ireland, but the Irish have always been good at making their own versions of popular songs.

You can read more about the history at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone

in Dublin’s fair city where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
She wheeled her wheelbarrow through the streets broad and narrow
singing cockles and mussels alive alive oh

“Alive, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh”,
Crying “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh”.
She was a fishmonger,
But sure ’twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother before,
And they each wheeled their barrow,
Through the 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 the streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”
(chorus)