These are the lyrics to the ballad which is a different melody to the above reel

 

 

I sat within a valley green

Sat there with my true love

My fond heart strove to choose between

The old love and the new love

The old for her, the new that made

Me think on Ireland dearly

While soft the wind blew down the glade

And shook the golden barley

'Twas hard the mournful words to frame

To break the ties that bound us

But harder still to bear the shame

Of foreign chains around us

And so I said, "The mountain glen

I'll seek at morning early

And join the brave United Men

While soft winds shook the barley

'Twas sad I kissed away her tears

Her arms around me clinging

When to my ears that fateful shot

Come out the wildwood ringing

The bullet pierced my true love's breast

In life's young spring so early

And there upon my breast she died

While soft winds shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream

And many's the summer blossom

I placed with branches soft and green

About her gore-stained bosom

I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse

Then rushed o'er vale and valley

My vengeance on the foe to wreak

While soft winds shook the barley

'Twas blood for blood without remorse

I took at Oulart Hollow

I placed my true love's clay-cold corpse

Where mine full soon may follow

Around her grave I wander drear

Noon, night and morning early

With aching heart when e'er I hear

The wind that shakes the barley

Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836-1883)