Molly Malone statue

You'll know the song even if you think you don't: ‘In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty…’. It tells the story of Molly Malone, a street trader who wheeled her barrow crying ‘cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o!’ and died young of a fever. Today it's Dublin's unofficial anthem.

1A music-hall song

The earliest known version was published in Boston in 1876, in a university songbook. In 1884 it appeared in London, credited to James Yorkston of Edinburgh. Scholars believe it is a music-hall number of the period, with its blend of comedy and tragedy, rather than an old Irish street ballad.

2The Molly of 1699

In 1988, during the Dublin Millennium celebrations, the city's commission endorsed the idea that the song was based on one Mary Malone, who died on 13 June 1699, and declared that day Molly Malone Day. There's no evidence linking her to the song: Dublin has had plenty of Mary Malones over the centuries.

Molly is real as a symbol of the city, but the fishmonger of the song is a fictional character.

The statue, by Jeanne Rynhart, was unveiled on Grafton Street in 1988. In 2014 it was moved here to make way for the Luas works. Dubliners promptly gave her a few rhyming nicknames, not all of them flattering.

3What to look for

• The barrow and its baskets of shellfish.
• The low-cut dress, hardly typical of a street trader of the time, which has caused plenty of comment.
• St Andrew's Church behind her, in the Gothic Revival style.