Malcolm, you are amazing!

PATRICK RILEY
(SONGS AND BALLADS OF IRELAND - p35)

My name is Patrick Riley, the truth I will make known,
And I was born near Clonis, In the County of Tyrone;
My parents reared me tenderly, having no child but me,
And with them I lived contented to the age of twenty three.

Alas! I took a notion to cross the raging sea,
In search of some promotion unto America;
To seek employment in that land, a fortune to obtain,
And when I had secured it to return straight home again.

Alas! I had a sweetheart, McCormick was her name,
When she heard we were for parting, straightway to me she came,
Saying: Pat, can this be possible, you're going to prove unkind,
And leave me broken-hearted in sorrow here behind!

Dear Ann, I said, be not afraid, it's you I do adore,
My daily thought shall be of you while on Columbia's shore;
And when I do return again, if God spares me my life,
Here is my hand in promise I will make you my wife.

With this she seemed quite reconciled, and home straightway she went,
And early the next morning to Captain Pilot went;
She swore that I waylaid her and used her barbarously,
And robbed her of her purse of gold, which proved my destiny.

The police then soon surrounded me, as you shall understand,
And marched me off to Liffy jail by the magistrate's command;
It's there I lay in irons until my trial day,
Oh, little was my notion she'd swear my life away.

On the twenty-first of July last my trial it came on.
This maid being void of scripture before the Judge did stand;
She swore that I waylaid her and robbed her of five pound,
And thought to force her to a pool where she would soon be drowned.

The Judge then charged the jury with words that were severe,
Saying: This maid must now be rightified for all that she did swear;
The jury gave their verdict, aloud the Judge did cry:
For your cruelty unto the maid, young Riley, you must die.

When I received my sentence the tears from my eyes did flow,
Thinking to leave my mother in sorrow, grief, and woe;
And she being far advanced in years, having no child but me,
That she will stand to see her son upon the gallows tree.