Molly Bawn Lowry- John Maguire (Ferm) c1926 REC
[My date, learned from his mother. From the recording Come Day, Go Day, God Send Sunday; John Maguire (1902-1976) Leader LEE 4062 (LP, UK, 1973). The recording made by Robin Morton in 1972.
John Maguire, who died in 1976, was a retired farmer who lived near Rosslea, County Fermanagh.
R. Matteson 2016]
Molly Bawn Lowry- As sung by John Maguire, a farmer who lived near Rosslea, County Fermanagh. "That was a song I got from my mother" said Maguire. His mother was Bridget McMahon of Corbann.
Come all you late fowlers that carry a gun,
Beware of late fowling in the dark of the sun;
Beware of late fowling, when what happened of late,
It was Molly Bawn Lowry and a-hard was her fate.
She being coming from her uncle's, when a shower came on
She went under a green bush, the shower to shun.
With her apron all round her I took her for a swan,
But to my misfortune I shot Molly Bawn.
Out bespoke my old father, his old locks were grey,
'Oh! son, dearest son, you do not go away.
Don't leave your own country till the assizes comes on,
You ne'er will be hanged for shooting a swan.'
Oh! the day of her funeral, it was a grand sight,
To see four and twenty of them and all dressed in white;
Bore her on their shoulders, laid her in her clay;
They turned their backs and they all walked away.
But take four and twenty of them, put them all in a row,
And her beauty shines round them like a fountain of snow.
Now since it's decreed for that I was her doom,
That I was her butcher instead of her groom;
There is no other breathing that e'er I will take,
I will travel this world my soul for to make.