Strange House- unknown (Ulster) c.1860s
[My title. From: The Irish Book Lover - Volumes 9-13 - Page 130 by John Smyth Crone, Seamus O'Cassidy, Colm O Lochlainn - 1917.
The following is an excerpt with the text.
R. Matteson 2017]
In "Notes and Queries," once again published weekly, for 10th April, Mr. Joesph J. MacSweeney pointed out the close resemblance between a poem by William Allingham "The Girl's Lamentation," an English folk song in Kidson and Neal's Collection, and a Gaelic song "Tiocfaidh an Samhradh," in Mrs. Costello's recent collection published by the Irish Folk Song Society. Being interested both in Allingham and folk songs, I sent the following note:
The theme of both poem and folk song-- the betrayal and desertion of a young girl is, of course, as old as the hills and wide as the world. When I was a boy in rural Ulster in the sixties of last century I often heard a folk-song which I always considered the foundation upon which Allingham built. The words and the pathetic old Irish air to which it was sung cling to my memory yet. Here are a few stanzas which show a close resemblance to both poem and song:
[There is a Strange House]
There is a strange house in this town
Where my true love goes in and sits down,
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And he tells her the tale that he once told me.
I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain,
I wish that I was a maid again,
A maid I was, but ne'er shall be
Till the apples grow on yon ivy tree.
I wish, I wish, now I'm all forlorn
I wish my baby it was born,
And sitting on its dada's knee,
And the long, green grass growing over me.