The old woman I know about was not from Wexford nor Belfast, but Dublin, and the words of the song went like this:

There was an old woman from Dublin. In Dublin she did dwell.
She loved her husband with all her heart but another man twice as well.

CHORUS: Sing dree-I-dree-I-dree, sing dree-I-dree-I-dree.

She went to the doctor to see if she could find
Some remedy or another that would make the old man blind. CHORUS

She took it home and gave it to him and made him take it all.
Said he, "My dearest darling wife, I can't see you at all. CHORUS

"I'd go to the river and drown myself if I thought I could find the way."
Said she, "I'll go along with you for fear you go astray." CHORUS

She stepped back a step or two to shove the old man in.
He stepped over to one side and headfirst she went in. CHORUS

The old man being tenderhearted and afraid that she might swim,
He gathered himself up a ten-foot pole and pushed her deeper in. CHORUS

This version from rural Oklahoma from "Uncle Tom Barker" who came there from northern Kentucky in l870-80.

Regards.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 6-Apr-03.