I Need Answers!

We never really got a lot of backstory on Molly Malone


Didn't she marry that Sam guy on the TV show with the bar?  


Wrong Malone.

So anyway, today's Status refers to the Irish folk song "Molly Malone."  You've all heard it, regardless of how Irish you are outside of March 17th.  It's the one which goes "Alive alive Oh!  Alive alive Oh!  Cockles and Mussels alive Oh!"  From the song, which is something of an unofficial anthem of Dublin and has even resulted in an aesthetically questionable bronze status of the fictional heroine, we know that Molly was a fishmonger, presumably following in her parents' footsteps.

Aside from that and the fact that Molly died of "a fever," and it's implied that this occurred while Molly was still fairly young, we know pretty much jack squat about the girl.

For example, career-wise it is established that both of her parents were also fishmongers, each with their own barrow for wheeling around the aforementioned cockles and mussels.  Did Molly grow up wanting to be a fishmonger as well, or did she have other designs for life and fell back on this as a career?  Did she inherit one of her parents' barrows, if so which one, and if not, where are the two other barrows?  Did she have to apprentice as a fishmonger in order to afford her own barrow?  Did she sell any actual fish?  Both cockles and mussels are types of molluscs, and not technically classified as "fish."  From what we know for certain, Molly is better described as a "shellfishmonger," though that is admittedly more difficult to work into song.  We also don't know how good of a shellfishmonger she was.  Her level of success at peddling cockles and mussels is completely unknown, which leads to some concern if a lack of salesmanship led to a destitute living and thus her health problems. 

Molly's personal life is also a complete unknown.  All we know about her we learn from some unnamed lyrical narrator who first saw her wheeling around her barrow in Dublin.  We're told she was a sweet girl, which certainly is to her credit, but can we rely on the narrator's judgement?  We don't know what the narrator's relation to Molly was.  Was he a distant relative who had never seen her until she was a shellfishmonger, a stranger passing by on the street, or a potential suitor?  Given the fact that the narrator seems to have known Molly for some amount of time (from when he first sees her selling shellfish from a barrow until after she dies of a fever...I would assume this takes a few weeks at a minimum), I think we can discount the passing stranger theory.  Given that the narrator specifically points out that girls in Dublin are "so pretty" and still singles out Molly, I would argue that the narrator is a potential suitor for Molly, though his or her amount of success in pursuing a relationship with Molly is never revealed.  Along those lines, we don't actually know if Molly is pretty.  Dublin girls apparently are, but Molly is only ever described as "sweet."  I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that at least the narrator found her particularly attractive.

Did Molly Malone ever meet Rosie McCann?   Sure, the River Bann is pretty far north of Dublin, but either of the two may have traveled and crossed paths at some point.


You may want to do a quick search for "The Star of the County Down" to understand that joke. 


Was Molly happy in the life she chose or had chosen for her?  I think we'd all like to believe that until Molly contracted her fever (and even that's not really well laid out), Molly was perfectly content pushing around her barrow crying "Cockles and Mussels Alive, Alive Oh!"

Until somebody makes a movie about her, I don't think we'll ever really know for sure.