Thanks for all the input Alice, I will try to find the recording you mention.
I first heard the song in Michael Furlong's Oak Tree Lounge in Foulksmills, Co. Wexford in the summer of l968 and it haunted me until I learned to sing it myself.
I did change one word from the original version that was taught to me from 'cove' to 'cape', (of starry light), but the rest is just as I received it from my friend. Michael Furlong is gone but I'll bet the song is still being sung any night there is music.

Slainte