By the way, we had Rosie Stewart from Fermanagh at the Library of Congress in May, and she sings it as "I don't care if I do." I can't remember if the unconnected first verse is there in her version or not.

To answer Mysha's other question, I don't know how that verse came to be in the song. I might guess that the writer was trying to evoke the tradition of "come all ye" verse, which frequently start something like "Come all ye pretty fair maids and listen to me song/it's just a little ditty and it isn't very long...."

Now, if you wanted to adapt that opening to a song in which every verse has to end "me darlin', says I, I don't mind if I do," you'd have to change it into a conversation between the narrator and his girlfriend. You'd keep the "song" and "isn't very long" but make the rest more personal. What you got out of that would be very much like this first verse.

I agree that it doesn't work all that well--but the rest of the song is charming when it's done well.