Careful with this--the Clancys have the tune right, I think, but the words are another thing. The words are by Sir Hugh Roberton, who is rarely credited with it (does his estate know?) -- the note in the Clancy book reads: "This is well-known in the Irish and Scots Gaelic, at least in chorus and tune. The English version bears little relation to the original as we first heard it, and although rewritten in the early part of the century, it seems appropriate today"--being a good "we're all human together" sort of thing. The original Gaelic is in e.g. the collection A' Choisir-chiuil, circa 1910 maybe, with the music; 4 stanzas + chorus (1.1 "A Mhairi bhan og gur og bha mis' agus thu"); Sir Hugh's words are not a translation. The song is said to be "adapted" by Archie Fisher, Pat Clancy, Tom Clancy, Liam Clancy, and Tommy Makem; but in Roberton's own Songs of the Isles (London: Curwen; NY: Schirmer; Curwen Edition 6375, no date, but prefaced 1950), pp. 12-13, we have the words to a traditional Gaelic tune, labelled as copyright in the U.S.A. 1938. Here there are three stanzas, as opposed to the other with two (1st & 3rd), and it is, all chauvinism aside, simply a better song. Maybe they just wanted to collect a few cents for their "copyright", but the royalties should go to the estate of Sir Hugh, who died in 1952, so the copyright doesn't expire till 2002!! -- The Irish balladeers have of course wilfully changed a word or two, e.g. in their 2nd verse, line 2 should be "And whether the hue be white or black as the sloe", which is lot more poetic, for one thing. I feel strongly about this--forgive me.