'Donal Og' is surely one of the most moving of Irish love songs. A song of betrayal, obsession and grief – a young girl's cry as desolate as the moonscape of the Burren – and Al O'Donnell's stunning performance of it was one of the high points of the folk revival. It is a disgrace that his albums are no longer available.

DONAL OG (Young Donald)

O Donal Og when you cross the ocean
Take me with you when you are going
At fair or market you'll be well looked after
And you shall sleep with the Greek king's daughter

O lad of fairness, O lad of redness
O lad so fair my mind's in sadness
When I think of another in your name calling
The top and the bottom of my hair starts falling

My mother ordered me to shun you
Today, tomorrow and on Sunday
Too late, in vain o'er spilt milk grieving
Closing the door on a bygone thieving

O you said you would meet me, but you were lying
Beside the sheep shed as day was dying
I whistled and called you, twelve times repeating
But all that I heard was the young lambs bleating

If you come at all, come when stars are peeping
Rap the door that makes no squeaking
My mother will ask you to name your people
And I'll say you're a sigh of the night wind weeping

I got the first kiss and from no craven
I got the second atop the stairway
The third kiss came as down he (sic) laid me
But for that one night, be still a maiden

The last time I saw you was a Sunday evening
Beside the altar as I was kneeling
It was of Christ's passion that I was thinking
But my mind was on you and my own heart bleeding

For you took what's before me and what's behind me
Took east and west when you wouldn't mind me
Sun, moon and stars from me you've taken
And God as well if I'm not mistaken

Traditional.

Source: Al O'Donnell 'Al O'Donnell 2' The Leader Tradition LTRA 501. A version in Irish (with translation) may be found in Peter Kennedy (Ed) 'Folksongs of Great Britain and Ireland' Cassell, London 1975. One of the 'big' Gaelic songs, it is also found in Scots tradition. There are myriad versions of the song and, in fact, a book has been devoted entirely to it: 'Donal Og' by Seosamh O Duibhginn Dublin 1960. A number of translations are sung and Al learned this poignantly beautiful version from Seamus Ennis.

I not sure whether the change of person in the third last stanza was deliberate or merely a slip on the singer's part.
^^