The Liberties remembers fifth-generation street trader Kathleen Farrell

Like a flag at half-mast, Kathleen Farrell’s stall was still standing at the corner of Thomas Street and Meath Street last Wednesday afternoon.

The intersection looked bare without her presence next to the electrical box painted aqua green, red and pale yellow, bearing the declaration that this was “the heart of the Liberties”.

She had passed away the Sunday before.

All of the potted plants and colourful bouquets were gone from the stall. Only the empty frame was left with a pair of daffodils tied to each of its vertical bars.

She had been growing those daffodils at home, said the local historian, tour guide and activist James Madigan. “Oh I don’t know for how long. That was just told to me.”

Nearby, some locals had attached bunches of flowers to a pair of signposts. There were red and white roses, daisies and more daffodils. One person left a single red candle on the footpath.

For many, she was as reliable a sight on Thomas Street as the street itself. She was, in some respects, a part of the furniture, says community activist Rita Fagan. “You know, like, very much a part of the culture of the area.”

She brightened this particular corner of the street outside Dudley’s Bar and Lounge, formerly Baker’s, says Patrick Dempsey. “I remember her holding that spot through most of my life.”

Farrell was the fifth generation of her family here, Madigan says. Her mother and grandmother before her had traded on this spot, back when, decades ago, there were almost sixty stalls on Thomas Street, said Fagan.

“Like, they were there, kind of the roots of the area, from one end of Thomas Street right up to the other end,” Fagan says.

Those stalls vanished over the last 30 years, until really it was just Farrell and her kids still selling on Thomas Street, carrying the tradition, she says.

“Kathleen’s come out of a very good stock of people, that they worked the streets, they are a part of the street,” she says.

Don’t forget us

Farrell’s removal was last Wednesday evening.

Just after five, she was taken from the Massey Brothers’ Funeral Home on Thomas Street to the Augustinian Church on John’s Lane.

There was a huge crowd that showed up on the street, said Noel Fleming, of Noel’s Deli on Meath Street that night. “Couple of hundred people. They actually should’ve had a Garda escort. Course they didn’t know how many people were going to turn up.”

It was a lovely traditional removal, said James Madigan on Monday, at the corner of Thomas Street and Meath Street. “You walked with the coffin and stopped at this corner to pay respects.”

She had it all planned, he said. “The Liberties does funerals well.”

The next morning, John’s Lane Church was filling up as 11am came, and people stepped in from the biting icy winds outside.

Most of the pews were taken up, and about 50 people filed in, standing at the back, talking in hushed tones among themselves as a tenor commenced the service with a rendition of the hymn “Abide with Me”.

From the altar, over the soft melody of a harp, the priest leading the mass, Father Paddy O’Reilly, said Farrell’s family had laid out four symbols by her wicker casket.

An Irish rugby jersey, a pocket for work, a cup of Barry’s Tea, and a copy of the Irish Independent.

After the gospel readings, O’Reilly stepped down into the middle aisle to talk about those offerings.

Now, a newspaper, he said. “Why in the name of God would you have a newspaper?”

He scanned the crowd, and asked the family. They told him, and he repeated the answer into his microphone.

Every day, she’d have a half an hour break to read the newspaper, he said. “The business section. Not the obituaries. There are some people who take care to make sure they’re not dead.”

She was one of the last flower sellers on the streets of Dublin 8, he said. “One of the last corner girls, wasn’t she, there on Thomas Street.”

Near the end of the service, her daughter Catherine O’Connor, who also trades on Thomas Street, said her mother would live on in everyone there. “And I want everyone to hear my word, the Liberties will always be here. So don’t forget us.”

The room applauded. The family then proceeded to carry Farrell’s coffin down the aisle and out onto Thomas Street, as the harpist produced a delicate melody and a female voice started to sing.

“Listen,” a man said, a bit surprised.

It was the singer-songwriter Imelda May, who led the room through an impromptu, slow rendition of the folk song “Molly Malone’”.

The attendants flocked out onto the busy street, as buses and cars passed by, and her coffin was placed in a hearse, decorated with an arrangement of daffodils.

As the traffic subsided, and the crowd dispersed, the hearse turned up onto Francis Street, two stretch limousines in tow, and disappeared from sight.

Kathleen’s Corner

James Madigan walked over to the corner of Meath Street and Thomas Street on Monday evening.

Kathleen’s Corner, he called this spot.

Her stall was now gone. But some of the bouquets of flowers were still tied to signposts close to where it had been.

It would have been all stalls here from St Catherine’s Church of Ireland and down to Vicar Street back in the 1970s and ’80s, he said as a fierce wind blew and an alarm rang out closeby. “That would’ve just been stalls.”

It was vibrant with colour, he said. “A lot of it was fruit. Then it dwindled, like at the top of Meath Street, and 10 years ago, it was just Kathleen [on Thomas Street], and she’s lucky she has the two children, who are a credit to her.”

Whether they continue the trading themselves is up to them, he said. “But I’d hope they would. As long as there has been a city, that city has needed fuel and produce, so I would see Kathleen Farrell as having followed that tradition.”

She should be honoured, he said. “But she should be honoured by the council by giving more regard to markets and street trading.”

It would be better to honour Farrell by making it easier to trade in the area, he said, “than it would be for you to put up a statue where you’re blocking street trading”.

Dublin City Council is due to begin a series of public-realm works over on Meath Street this year, which would include upgrading its footpaths and lighting, adding street furniture, planting trees and putting in defined zones for market stalls.

While locals voiced their worries that these proposals might gentrify the area, councillors believed that the €4.5 million revamp could support traders by widening the paths.

Women like Farrell kept street trading alive as the area was neglected and devastated by addiction in the 1980s and ’90s, Sinn Féin TD Máire Devine said later that evening.

“It was the Molly Malones, or whatever you call them, they held it together and kept it going,” Devine said. “We need to honour them, and she’s the epitome of those.”

It is an area that should be classified as a place of “intangible cultural heritage” because of its street trading, Devine says.

This term, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, refers to as a practice or tradition that a community recognises as part of their cultural heritage.

Thomas Street was and is a unique and special place, Devine says. “And it’s made special by people like Kathleen, ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam,” she says.

“Things change. But let’s hold onto what was great about it, a sense of community and the proudness of it,” she says.