Molly Malone ~ Bronze *
Sculptor ~ Jeanne Rynhart

Jeanne Rynhart was born in Dublin and having spent five years studying painting and sculpture with George Collie, RHA and at the National College of Art in Dublin, Jeanne and husband Derek, settled in England. After further study at Coventry College of Art, she exhibited her work at various galleries throughout the UK. Her paintings and pastels were popular, however, she decided to concentrate on sculpture.  Each piece is well researched to ensure the authenticity of features such as clothing, detail, pose, location and this attention to detail is evident in each and every piece.

This sculpture of Molly Malone in seventeenth-century dress, is a familiar landmark at the corner of Grafton and Suffolk Street, Dublin.  As well as being known and sung internationally, the popular song ‘Cockles and Mussels‘ has become a sort of unofficial anthem of Dublin city.

In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she steered her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

chorus
Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O! Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

She was a fish-monger, but sure ’twas no wonder, For so were her father and mother before,
And they each wheeled their barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O! Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

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!

Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O! Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

Until now I did not know there was such a thing as Molly Malone day!

The Molly Malone statue in Grafton Street was commissioned by Dublin City Council and unveiled by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alderman Ben Briscoe during the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations, declaring 13 June as Molly Malone Day.  The sculptor sang the song Molly Malone with The Dubliners during the celebrations.

In true Dublin fashion we have a day dedicated to a fictitious fishmonger!  Through the monument we see her with ample cleavage, wheeling a cart, she is loving known in Dublin as “The Tart with the Cart”, “The Dolly with the Trolley”, “The Trollop with the Scallop”, “The Dish with the Fish” or “The Flirt in the Skirt”.

An article in the Irish Times on June 20, 2011, told of the “spare head” for the Molly Malone statue going under the hammer at a value of up to €30,000?

Why?

It has emerged that two identical heads were prepared from the original mould for the bronze sculpture on Grafton Street 23 years ago in order to hedge against problems during casting. In the event both were cast successfully.The “spare head” has been kept ever since in the Bantry, Co Cork, studio of the sculptress Jeanne Rynhart and she had decided to sell it “to free up space in her studio”, and it would go under the hammer with an estimate of €20,000 to €30,000.

The sculpture was controversial and it had attracted some criticism. One group of artists, declared it to be “entirely deficient in artistic point and merit”. There was criticism of the low-cut dress worn by the well-endowed Molly and the sculpture was nicknamed “The Tart With The Cart”.

Rynhart defended her design and said:

“The image was based on the figure and dress of a 17th century woman who was both a fishmonger and part-time prostitute who plied her trade “from the Liberties, along Dame Street, Trinity College, up residential Grafton Street, and on to the newly fashionable houses off St Stephen’s Green”.
In a letter to ‘The Irish Times’ at the time, she explained that “Molly’s healthy diet of fish and strenuous daily exercise routine pushing approximately 3 cwt around would have assisted her development into a fine strong girl”. Rynhart further asserted that “breasts would not have shocked 17th century Dubliners – powdered milk was not in use and women’s appendages were the only means of ensuring the survival of the species past infancy”.

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* I have Alice from My Wintersong to thank for the photo, she took it on the day we met in Dublin’s fair city!  Thank you Alice.