MV."Maybe Leaving Of Liverpool and Leaving Of Limerick were created independent of each other?"

No. One was definitely created from the other and gut feeling tells me "Limerick" is the older of the two.

Incidentaaly, the two tunes are so close that I was listening to it on the radio once and somebody walking past said, "That's The Leaving of Liverpool".

Here's another, slightly longer text, which was sent to the RTÉ broadcaster Donagh McDonough in the 1950s. McDonough used to get people to send the texts of ballads to him, and he would then get singers to put airs to them and broadcast the results over the radio.

His son, Martin McDonough (I think) posted the collection on the Internet some years, and it included some rare and invaluable material. Unfortunately, I've just been to look for the site now and it seems to have disappeared. If anyone has an extant website address, do please post it.

The Leaving of Limerick

As I roved out one evening down by the Assembly Mall
I heard two lovers talking as me and my love passed on;
The words that passed between them they were but very few:
"It isn't the leaving of Limerick that grieves me,
But my darling when I think of you!"

"In the morning when I'm going I'll wave my lily-white hand,
I'll wave it all over my shoulder, and adieu to Limerick Strand;
And farewell to the girls of Thomond Gate, 'tis to them I bed adieu;
It isn't the leaving of Limerick that grieves me,
But my darling when I think of you!"

"when I think of the pleasant days we spent in search of treasure trove
And the hours we spent in courting away in Gabbet's Grove;
I did not then deceive you when I vowed I would be true;
It isn't the leaving of Limerick that grieves me,
But my darling when I think of you!"

"And now that we must be parted 'tis hard to understand
Why I must go broken hearted away from Limerick strand;
Though, My fond love, I must leave , you know my heart it is true;
It isn't the leaving of Limerick that grieves me,
But my darling when I think of you!"