These were recorded in Colm O Loochlann Irish Street Ballads.
Grá geal mo Chroí means ‘love of my heart’.
At the foot of Newry mountain
Clear water does flow.
There lives a wee lassie
Far whiter than snow.
She’s slender in the waist
For all young men to see
And her name in plain Irish
Is Grá geal mo Chroí.
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‘Twas on a summer’s morning,
As I walked along,
Down by yon green valley,
I heard a fine song;
It was a fair damsel,
And her voice rang most clear,
Saying, “How blest would I be
If my darling was here.”
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I then drew a near to
A shade that was green,
Where the leaves grew about here
And she scarce could be seen;
And it was her whole cry,
“O my darling come away!
For without your loving company
No longer can I stay.
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That the moon it may darken
And show us no light,
And the bright stars of heaven
Fall down from their height;
That the rocks may all melt,
And the mountains remove
The hour I prove false
To the fair one I love.
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If I were an empress
And had the care of a crown,
And had I all the money
That’s for it laid down,
I would freely return it
To the boy that I love,
And mind I’d resign
To the great God above.”
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Like a sheet of white paper
Is her neck and her breast,
Her bright eyes a-shining
Have robbed me of rest,
She’s a pattern of virtue
Wherever she goes,
And her cheeks I compare
To the red blushing rose.
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Oh, the ships on the ocean
May go without sails,
And the smallest of fishes
Turn into great whales,
In the middle of the oceans
There will grow an apple tree,
If e’er I prove false
To my Grá geal mo Chroí.