Here is the text from P. W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) - pages 230-232
THE JOYCE COLLECTION.
420. WILLIE REILLY.
The event commemorated in this ballad occurred towards the end of the eighteenth century, and the scene is near Bundoran, beside the boundaries of the three counties, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Sligo, where the ruined house of the great Squire Folliard is still to be seen. The proper family-name is Ffollott, but the people always pronounce it Folliard. The whole story is still vividly remembered in the district: and Carleton has founded on it his novel of "Willie Reilly." The penal laws were then in force, and it was very dangerous for a young Catholic Irishman to run away with the daughter of a powerful Protestant local Squire.
The song, with its pretty air, was known and sung all over Ireland, so that it has clung to my memory from my earliest days. I well remember on one occasion singing it with unbounded applause for a number of workmen at their dinner in our kitchen when I was about ten years of age.
The words have been often printed, both in books and on ballad-sheets of which I have several copies. They will be found in Duffy's "Ballad Poetry of Ireland," as he got them from Carleton. The copy I give here differs from this in some words and phrases. I give the air chiefly from memory : but Forde has several settings in his great MS. collection.
WILLIE REILLY
"Come rise up, Willie Reilly, and come along with me;
I mean to go away with you, and leave this counterie;
I'll leave my father's dwelling, his money and free land":
And away goes Willie Reilly and his won dear Cooleen Bawn.
O'er lofty hills and mountains, through silent groves and plains.
Through shady groves and valleys all danger to refrain:
His father followed after with his well-armed band.
And taken was poor Reilly and his own dear Cooleen Bawn.
It's home then she was taken and in her closet bound;
Poor Reilly all in Sligo jail lay on the stony ground;
Till at the bar of justice before the judge he'd stand,
For nothing but the taking of his own dear Cooleen Bawn.
"And now I'm in cold irons, my hands and feet are bound;
I'm handcuffed like a murderer and tied unto the ground;
But all this toil and slavery I'm willing for to stand.
In hopes I'll be saved by my own dear Cooleen Bawn."
The jailer's son to Reilly goes and thus to him did say:—
"O rise up, Willie Reilly, you must appear this day:
The great Squire Folliard's anger you never can withstand;
I fear you'll suffer sore for your own dear Cooleen Bawn.
"This is the news, O'Reilly, last night I heard of thee;
The lady's oath will hang you or else will set you free":
"If that be true," said Reilly, "with pleasure I will stand.
In hopes I'll be saved by my own dear Cooleen Bawn."
Now Willie's drest from top to toe all in a suit of green,
His hair hangs o'er his shoulders most glorious to be seen;
He's tall and straight and comely as any could be found;
He's fit for Folliard's daughter was she heiress to a crown.
The judge he said, "This lady being in her tender youth,
If Reilly has deluded her she will declare the truth":
Then like a moving beauty bright before them she did stand:—
"You're welcome there, my heart's delight, my own dear Cooleen Bawn!"
"O gentlemen," Squire Folliard said, "with pity look on me,
This villain came amongst us to disgrace my family;
And by his base contrivance this villainy was plann'd:
I'll have the life of Reilly or I'll leave my native land!"
The lady all in tears began, and thus replied she:—
"The fault is none of Reilly's, the blame is all on me:
I forced him for to leave his place and come along with me:
I loved out of measure, which proved our destiny."
Then out bespoke the noble Fox,*" at the table as he stood by:—
"O gentlemen, consider in this extremity;
To hang a man for love is a murder you may see.
So spare the life of Reilly to leave this counterie!"
"Good, my lord, he stole from her her jewels and gold rings,
Gold watch and silver buckles and many a precious thing,
Which cost me in bright value above two thousand pounds;
I'll have the life of Reilly or my estate I'll drown!"**
"Good, my lord, I gave them in token of my true love,
And now that we are parting I'll have them all removed;
If you have them, O'Reilly, pray send them back to me":
"I will, my loving lady, with many thanks," said he.
"There is one ring among them which I gave you to wear,
With thirty diamond lockets, well set in silver hair;
As a token of my true love wear it on your right hand.
That you may think on my broken heart, when in a foreign land!"
Then out bespoke the noble Fox, "Pray let the prisoner go.
The lady's oath has cleared him, as the jury all may know:
She has released her own truelove and has renewed his name:
That her honour great may gain estate and always lasting fame!"
** "I'll have the life of Reilly or my estate I'll drown!" - meaning "I'll have the life of Reilly if I were to drown my estate in debt by law proceedings.
Text and music notation available at http://archive.org/stream/oldirishfolkmusi00royauoft#page/230/mode/1up