SWEET MOLLY MALONE, THE DISH WITH THE FISH

“In Dublin's fair city, where girls are so pretty

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,

She wheeled a wheelbarrow, through streets broad and narrow

Crying cockles and mussels al-live, a-live oh.”

 

On Grafton Street make the aquaintance of Molly Malone, a comely young fishmonger whose story is told in Dublin's famous anthem of the same name. Molly, like the The Spire of Dublin, enjoys a litany of appelations: the Tart with the Cart, the Trollop with the Scallops, Flirt in the Skirt, the Dish with the Fish and the Dolly with the Trolley.

To visit Dublin and not see its statues would be for more reasons than one, a regrettable mistake.

 

The Irish in their irreverent but witty way have given nicknames to just about every statue and memorial in the city. Replacing O'Connell Street's Nelson's Pillar that was blown up by the IRA in 1966, is a tall slender spike, the Spire of Dublin, that has attracted huge attention. Waxing lyrical as only an Irishman can, its epithets include The Spike, The Stiletto in the Ghetto, The Stiffey at the Liffey, the Erection in the Intersection, The Nail in the Pale and the Binge Syringe.

 

James Joyce, a well-known Irish writer whose statue is on North Earl Street, is known as the Prick with a Stick.

When crossing Dublin's famous Ha'penny Bridge, there is a statue of two women chatting with their shopping at their feet. They're known as the Hags with the Bags.

 

 

And in Croppy Acre Memorial Park, Livia Plurabelle, a character in James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake' reclines in sensuous abandon in a pond. She's known as The Floozie in the Jacuzzi.

 

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A tour guide recommendation: Contact Irwin Johnston, accredited by Failte Ireland - E-mail: johnstons@eircom.net.

 

For more about Ireland and the 2013 Gathering festivals and events visit the following websites:

www.thegatheringireland.com and www.Ireland.com

 

All images are Anne Gordon's copyright.

 

Posted by Anne Gordon on Friday 1st February, 2013