"O, THE RAIN FALLS ON...BABE LIES COLD
She is singing "The Lass of Aughrim," a version from western Ireland which Nora (Aughrim is near Galway, Nora's origin) sang to Joyce. (One of the original versions of this song is "The Lass of Lochroyan," #76 in F.J.Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-98). The lyrics tell the story of a young peasant girl who has a child by a Lord Gregory, who seduced and then left her. She comes to his castle to beg for his help, but is turned away by his mother who, behind the closed front door, imitates her sons voice. She puts out to sea in a small boat to drown herself and the child, but is not saved, even though the lord discovers his mother's ruse and races to find her. The ballad ends with the lord mourning for his lost love and bringing down a curse on his mother. There are many versions of the song, which perhaps explains Bartell D'Arcy's confusion. The version that Nora sang to Joyce can be found in Richard Ellmann's James Joyce (revised edition, p. 286). The three quoted lines are from the section below where the girl talks with Lord Gregory, who is behind the closed door:


If you'll be the lass of Aughrim
As I am taking you mean to be
Tell me the first token
That passed between you and me.

O don't you remember
That night on yon lean hill
When we both met together
Which I am sorry now to tell.

The rain falls on my yellow locks
And the dew it wets my skin;
My babe lies cold within my arms;
Lord Gregory, let me in."

from

here.