SINEAD O’CONNOR

MOLLY MALONE

Cockles and Mussels.

Sinead O’Connor passed away at the age of 56 this week. This has shocked people for many reasons, as it’s such a young age, and some would say that she was a tortured soul – if you look up her story then you may have an insight as to why.

I struggled with which song to choose to pay tribute to her, and the obvious choice would have been “Nothing Compares 2 U” but it’s not even the best song in her catalogue. I thought I’d go back to Sinead’s Irish roots and choose a song that for me was quite special growing up and I’ll come back to that shortly.

This song is from her 2002 album “Sean-Nos Nua” and for me this version is beautiful, the way that it’s produced sits her vocals right in the centre with haunting effects which make it sound like she’s singing in an old dark cobbled street, rain covered. It conjures quite an image, and Sinead’s vocals really give me shivers up my spine as she starts. Her accent is strong, which adds to the authenticity of the song, as after all this is an old Irish folk song.

Molly Malone was a fishwife and she used to sell her trade on the streets Dublin she comes from a line of fishmongers and the way the tale is told is heartbreaking – just an ordinary person doing an ordinary thing but someone’s taken note and immortalised her in song.

The last verse is what breaks you though:

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, oh!

The chorus of “Alive alive oh” is just beautiful such a simple melody.

Sinead does such a great job on this.

In comparison to Sinead’s other performances this is so gentle, and lilting.

Let me take you back a few years.

“When I was at primary school music was a big part of activities – we sang on a Wednesday morning with Mrs Ruth Savill. She was the school pianist and local church organist and there were loads of books we could have sung from but the one that really stays with me was a book that had folk songs from around the world – this was one of them and the other one was “My Grandfather’s Clock” representing America. Whenever I hear it takes me back to those days happier and carefree days, and will always count as a song that helped me on the path to being a musician. “

Listen to ‘Molly Malone’ here now