A song that in some ways parallels the Rose if Tralee, (though it is in so sense a variant of that song),and that I'm curious about, is the Rose of Allendale.

The heroine here is also called Mary, some of the action takes place in far flung places (Africa as against India with the Rose of Yralee), and my gut feeling is that the Rose of Allendale isn't meant to be there in the flesh, but as a picture and a memory, as withn the Rose of Tralee in Vin Garbutt's priest's verse. (though I could be wrong on that)

But I haven't a clue who wrote it and when, and if it was inspired by the Rose of Tralee. I think it's probably Scottish, or possibly North of England rather than Irish in origin.

Rather surprisingly it's not in the Digital Tradition, so here are the verses I've got:

The morn was fair, the skies were clear,
No breath came o'er the lea,
when Mary left her highland home,
and wandered forth with me
Though flowers decked the mountainside,
and fragrance filled the vale
By far the fairest flower there
was the Rose of Allendale.

(Cho)The Rose of Allendale, sweet Rose of Allendale
By far the sweetest flower there was the Rose of Allendale.

Whene'er I wandered, east or west,
Though fate began to glower
A solace still she was to me
In sorrows lonely hour
When tempests lashed our lonely barque
And rent her shivering sail
One maiden form withstood the storm
Twas the Rose of Allendale

And when my fevered lips were parched
On Afric's burning sands
She whispered hopes of happiness
And tales of distant lands.
My life had been a wilderness
unblessed by fortune's gale,
Had fate not linked my lot to her's,
The Rose of Allendale.