Description
This folk song tells the story of the Dublin fishmonger, Molly Malone. Despite the song’s great fame, little is known about its musical origins, or the veracity behind the story it tells. The only definite information that exists comes from the lyrics themselves, which tell us that Molly was a young woman from a fishmonger background, who would wheel a barrow of seafood through the streets of Dublin. Sadly she died of a fever, and now her ghost haunts the streets…
This arrangement was created for the Vicars Choral of Wells Cathedral Choir and Jonathan Vaughan, who gave it’s premiere at Glastonbury Festival in the summer of 2013.
© Owain Park 2025
In Dublin’s fair city,
where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheel’d her wheel-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!”
She was a fishmonger,
But sure ’twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother before,
And they each wheel’d their barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
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,
Now her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”
Traditional Irish Folk Song
