The sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda Gardens....and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses...'....Ulysses, 1922.
In the centre of the Alameda Gardens is the Molly Bloom Circle, a venue available for marriage ceremonies and drinks receptions. For those of a literary bent, there is the curious association between Gibraltar and Molly Bloom and a statute stands in the middle of the circle to commemorate her. Much of Molly's famous soliloquy (the last 60 pages or so of the book) refer to her childhood in Gibraltar.
So who exactly is or was Molly Bloom? She was the fictional wife of Leopold Bloom, the central character in James Joyces's 1922 Irish novel, Ulysses, who was having an affair with Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan. Molly, whose given name is Marion, was born in Gibraltar on 8 September 1870, the daughter of Major Tweedy, an Irish military offier and Lunita Laredo, a Gibraltarian of Spanish descent. Molly and Leopold were married on 8 October 1888. In Dublin, Molly is an opera singer of some renown.