This is the version currently sung by Noelle Bowe from Wexford - as it happens she'll be teaching it at a Comhaltas workshop in Tullamore this weekend.

As I roamed out one evening in the pleasant month of May,
It was down by Carrig River I carelessly did stray,
Where the hawthorn and the sweetbriar they would your heart illume,
And the rippling of the waters when the fraughans* were in bloom.

I do remember long ago when together we did roam
Through the lovely dells of Carrig where the woodcock makes its home.
All nature it was smiling along each rocky side
And the silvery stream flows down between to join the Slaney tide.

'Tis oft times that with vain regrets we think of things we've seen.
We have lived the past, but can't forget and mourn what might have been.
As we stroll along, the sweet birds’ song was ringing in the sky
O’er the lonely graves of Carrig where our Ninety-Eight men lie.

We oft-times go to view the place where our comrades they do lie,
Where oft we joined in harmless sport in days that are gone by.
Our hearts were young; we knew no care, as through the fields we strayed.
But, in vain the days have passed away, where oft-times we have played.

Oh, the thoughts of you, sweet Carrig, are constant in my mind.
I have roamed this wide world over, your equal could not find;
With your lofty trees and waterfalls, 'tis them I do adore.
So fare thee well, sweet Carrig; adieu for ever more.