Hello,

I am looking for the lyrics of "Suil a Ruin" everywhere but cannot find them.
If you have them, would you please mail them to me?
My email-adress is: Johannes.Grob@FH-Fulda.de

Thank you.

Johannes Grob

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Note the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song (pasted below)
-Joe Offer-

Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments for her love, sent (to France) as a soldier. She says she will cry till "every tear would turn a mill." She will sell her spinning wheel to arm him. She will dye her clothes red and "round the world... beg for bread" till he returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Belden, pp. 281-282, "Shule Aroon" (1 text)
Randolph 107, "Shule, Shule" (3 texts, 1 tune, though "A" is mixed with "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" or "The Swapping Boy" or some such, "B" is a nonsense fragment, and "C" is largely floating material); also probably the "A" fragment of 455, "When I Get on Yonder Hill" (2 texts)
Eddy 40, "Putnam's Hill" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
BrownII 127, "Shule Aroon" (1 fragment, so short that it might just be nonsense though it is probably this song)
Hudson 130, pp. 275-276, "Shule Aron" (1 text, short and even more damaged than usual, to which is prefixed the rhyme "Snail, snail, come out of your hole, Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal.")
Scott-BoA, pp. 32-35, "Siubhal a Gradh (Come, My Love, Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FSUSA 35, "Johnny Has Gone far a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 20, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 298-299, "Shoo, Shoo, Shoo-lye" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN199 "As from Newcastle I did pass" (listed as "Traditional? Ancestor of Scots 'Dicky Macphalion' and Irish 'Shule Aroon'")
Silber-FSWB, p. 280, "Buttermilk Hill" (1 text)
DT, SHULARN1* (SHULARN2*) SHULARN3 SHULARN4
Roud #911
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Shule Aroon" (on FSB1)
Chubby Parker, "Bib-A-Lollie-Boo" (Gennett 6077/Silvertone 5012, 1927) (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (on PeteSeeger31)
Art Thieme, "Bibble-a-la-doo" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of the Pinewoods" (floating lyrics)
Notes: In its earliest forms this song seems to have been simply a girl's lament for her departed lover. In many American versions (Randolph's 107 A and C, Eddy's D) we find unrelated stanzas about the girl's "very cross" father.
Scott (following Joyce) theorizes that the song arises out of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Irish supported James II, and were defeated at the Boyne. William III, who defeated James, offered forgiveness to the rebels who would swear loyalty to him, but many preferred exile. The only evidence for this theory, at least in English versions, seems to be the lines "But now my love has gone to France, To try his fortune to advance...."
It's hard to tell how much of this song was originally Gaelic. Although there are Gaelic choruses (e.g. from Barry, in JAFL XXII 15; Connie Dover's modern recording is as close to this as makes no difference), I've never heard a truly traditional Gaelic verse, and even the chorus is usually only a mangled imitation of Gaelic. (Of course, it doesn't help that Gaelic spelling is far from standardized.) - RBW
The Thieme recording retains only the tune, chorus and two verses of "Shule Agra"; otherwise, it's humorous floaters. - PJS
File: R107

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And the entry from folktrax.org:

SHULE AGRA/ AROON - "I would I were on yonders hill" - My truelove has gone from me - a thousand miles across the sea" - Ch: ends "Godethu, mavourneen slann"(= "That you ma go safely, my darling") - ROUD#911 - STANFORD: Irish Melodies - BURNE SFL 1883 (gypsies) - GRAVES Irish Song Book - HORNCASTLE Music of Ireland 1844 - GREIG-DUNCAN 6 1995 #1107 pp87-89 (3var 4v/2m) - MOFFAT Minstrelsy of Ireland - KIDSON TT 1891 - PETRIE 1902 - JOYCE OIFMS 1909 pp236-7 Limerick "Shule Aroon" - JFSS 2:9 1906 pp253-4 Kidson: A Mooney, Liverpool 1v/m "Johnny has gone for a soldier" - JFSS 3:10 1907 pp26-31 Lucy Broadwood: Bridget Geary, Cappoquin, Waterford 1906/ Hampsh c1893 (notes) ("The Rose is red the grass is green") - JFSS 5:19 1915 pp180-1 Gilchrist: Mrs Bowker, Sunderland Point, Lancash 1909 1v/m "Shule shule" - ROCHE 1 #29 p15 (Dm) 4/4 (m/o) "I wish I were on yonder hill" - KIDSON EPS 1929 - KERR MM 1 #59 p41 (Am) m/o - HUGILL 1961 p347 1v only - ZIMMERMAN IPSB 1966 p32 Note about Wild Geese "S Aroon" - SEDLEY 1967 p121 collated Graves & Kidson "Johnny has gone for a soldier" - CROININ 2000 #139 pp209211 "Siuil a ruin" -- see HE-BACK SHE-BACK - WHIP JAMBOREE --- RANDOLPH OFS 1946 1 pp400-402 Mrs May Kennedy McCord, Mo 1940/ Mrs Sylvia Hill, Thayer, Mo 1940 (w/o) "Shule Shule" - CREIGHTON MFS 1961 p131 Peter Brigley, NS 1951 "I dyed my petticoat red" - SILVERMAN SOI 1991 no source given -- Cecilia COSTELLO rec by PK, Birmingham 11/8/51: 098/ rec by Marie Slocombe 30/11/51: RPL 17033/ LEADER LEE-4054 1975/ Birmingham & Midland Folk Centre: Radio 2 "Folkweave" 1979: CASS-0413 - Elizabeth CRONIN rec by Alan Lomax, Macroom, Co Cork 1951: RPL 21535/ CAEDMON TC-1142/ TOPIC 12-T-157/ 160 & 518/ FOUR COURTS CD-1 #22 "Shule Aroon" - Frank "Wings" CAMPBELL rec by PK, Forkhill, Co Armagh 15/7/52: 7"RTR-0549/ RPL 18486 talk bef & aft/ 165 - Robert CINNAMOND rec by PK & Sean O Boyle, Belfast July 1955: RPL LP 24842/ 159 "Shule Gradh" - Louis KILLEN (with guitar)" rec by PK, London 8/11/57 Version from mother RTR-0063 - Dominic BEHAN: DOBELL F-LEUT/4 1962 - O BOYLE Family: CEOLTA GAEL OSS-2 1971 on d/cass 0938-C60 "A stor, a stor, a ghra" - Clare CLAYTON, rec by Geoff Biggs, Hassocks, Sussex April 1961: FOLKTRAX 147 --- Ronnie GILBERT: VANGUARD SRL-7624 1965 - Pamela WARRICK-SMITH GREENHAYS GR-90721 1990 CASS-0798 - Anita BEST & Pamela MORGAN with accomp: AMBER MUSIC (Newfoundland) ACD 9008 "Suil a Gra" (from John Joe English of Branch, St Mary's Bay)