Annotation:Rose Connolly
X:1 T:Rose Connolly M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"A little quick" N:”Author and date unknown.” S:Noted at Coleraine, 1811 B:Bunting – Ancient Music of Ireland (1840, No. 14, p. 14) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:E E/F/|.G2.G (E>F).G|B3 (cB).A|G>AF E2E|E3-E2 E/F/| G2.G (E>F).G|B3 (cBA)|G>AF E2E|E3 (Bc).d| eBG Bcd|e3 {d}cBA|{c}(B>G).F (G>E).C|E3 G>AB| c2c {d}c>BA|B2 c/B/ G2E|{D}C>B,C E2E|E3-E2||
ROSE CONNOLLY. AKA and see "Rosey Connolly," "Fair at Dungarvan (The)," "Alas My Bright Lady," "Lament for Kilcash," "Nelly My Love and Me," "There is a Beech-tree Grove," "Were You Ever in Sweet Tipperary?" Irish, Air (6/8 time). E Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The tune was noted by the Irish collector Edward Bunting from an unknown source in Coleraine in 1811.
All you young men and Maidens I pray you take warning by me,
And never court your true love anunder a Hozier Tree.
The devil and his temptations it was that came over me,
And I murdered my Rosey Connolly anunder a Hozier Tree.
O'Sullivan notes that "ozier," a form of willow, is meant for "Hozier" in the lyric.
Joel Shimberg points out that the American old-time duo Grayson and Whitter recorded a song called "Down in the Willow Garden" in the 78 RPM era, a reworking of the “Rose Connolly” theme. However, John Moulden says that “Down in the Willow Garden” was not very widespread in pre-Ralph Peer (the seminal 78 RPM recording engineer of the 1920’s) Appalachia. It goes:
Down in the willow garden, where me and my love did meet,
It's there we sat a-courting, my love dropped off to sleep.
I had a bottle of burgundy wine, which my true love did not know,
And there I murdered that dear little girl, down under the banks below.
I stabbed her with my dagger, which was a bloody knife,
Threw her into the river, with was a dreadful sight.
My father often had told me that money would set me free,
If I would murder that dear little girl, whose name was Rose Connolly.
Now he sits in his own cabin door, a-wiping his tear-dimmed eyes.
Watching as his only son climbs up the scaffold high.
My race is run beneath the sun, and hell now waits for me,
Because I murdered that dear little girl, whose name was Rose Connolly.
The “Down in the Willow” tune made its way into bluegrass repertoire from the Grayson/Whitter recording.