Molly Baun Lavery- Sloane (Kerry-AU) 1838 Meredith
[From the recording Sally Sloane – A Garland For Sally on Larrikin Records – LRF 136; 1983. Also John Meredith and Hugh Anderson's book "Folk Songs of Australia, and the Men and Women Who Sang Them," first published in 1967. See notes
Oxford Companion To Australian Folklore and also Bob Bolton following.
Sloane who knew the ballad as "Molly Baun Lavery" which is purported to be the original name of the woman who was killed. (see headnotes).
R. Matteson 2016]
Sally Sloane was the finest singer of all those recorded by John Meredith. Only a few of the singers recorded by other collectors sang anything like as well as Sally Sloane, and no other singer had a repertoire of songs as big as hers. Sally Sloane sang a number of songs passed on, through her mother, from her grandmother. That grandmother, Sarah Alexander, arrived in Australia from County Kerry, in the south-west of Ireland, in about 1838. (The Oxford Companion To Australian Folklore, by Gwenda Beed Davey & Graham Seal, and the author, Edgar Waters.)
"This is the song as sung by Sally Sloane, born Parkes, NSW, Australia, 1894, to collector John Meredith in the 1950s. Meredith notes that it is essentially the same as ballad #29 in Irish Street Ballads; 'Young Molly Bán'. Why it is called 'Molly Baun Lavery' and not just 'Molly Baun' I do not know. Sally has passed on and I can't ask her, but I shall ask John Meredith when next I see him. Much of Sally's repertoire was pased down from her Irish grandmother, Sarah Alexander, who came out from County Kerry, Ireland in 1838, aged 22 years." (Bob Bolton)
MOLLY BAUN LAVERY- sung by Sally Sloane; Australian Irish version; passed down from her grandmother Sarah Alexander, who came out from County Kerry, Ireland in 1838.
Come all you young fellows that follows a gun,
Beware of going a-shooting by the late setting sun.
It might happen to anyone, as it happened to me,
To shoot your own true love in under a tree.
She was going to her uncle, when the shower it came on,
She went under a bush, the rain for to shun.
With her apron all around her, I took her for a swan,
And I levelled my gun and I shot Molly Baun.
I ran to her uncle in haste and great fear,
Saying, "Uncle, dear uncle, I've shot Molly dear.
With her apron all around her, I took her for a swan,
Bur oh, alas, it was my own Molly Baun.
'I shot my own true love, alas, I'm undone,
While she was in the shade by the setting of the sun.
If I thought she was there, I'd caress her tenderly,
And soon I'd get married to my own Molly dear.'
My curse on you Toby, that lent me your gun,
To go out a-shooting by the late setting sun.
I rubbed her fair temples, and found she was dead,
A fountain of tears, for my Molly I shed.
Up came her aged father, and his locks they were grey,
Stay here in your own country, and don't run away.
Stay here in your own country 'til your trial it comes on,
And I'll see that you're set free by the laws of the land.'
All the maids in this country they all will be glad
When they hear of the sad news that my Molly is dead.
Take them all in their hundreds, set them all in a row,
Molly Baun she'll shine like a mountain of snow.