Tell me, have you heard of sweet Molly Malone?

Last night there was a party going on in the common area of the hostel, with the soundtrack provided by two Irish men; one had a guitar and the other a drum. They were both so animated and talented, belting out tune after tune: "Drops of Jupiter" by Train, "Time of Your Life" by Green Day... and finally, one of them made my night by singing "Galway Girl" with me for a bit...

Love this song :) Check it out if you've never heard it.

When I told him my name, he smiled and said to himself "Molly Malone". Apparently it's an Irish song but I couldn't place it so I asked him to sing it. He sang the first verse for me:

"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 o!"

How cute is that! You can imagine how excited I was- I told him that there were NEVER any good songs with the name Molly and that people always tell me that their dog's names are Molly. He looked at me and chuckled and sang the rest of the song for me... the last verse goes like this:

"She died of a fever

And no one could save her

And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone

But her ghost wheels her barrow

Through streets broad and narrow

Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!"

Damnit.

Ok, so there's a song about a nice girl name Molly. Sure, she dies, but hey, who doesn't? It started off really sweet. I was determined that it was a good song. By now he was obviously trying not to laugh and   asked if I knew the local lore behind the song...

Apparently, little Irish Molly sells mussels by day and works the corner by night. And the fever she died of was actually an STD.

Well FML. How depressing.

That's one thing about having the bar set low- there's nowhere to go but up :)