Here is a beautiful offshoot of the ballad from Sarah Makem of Keady, Armagh. Some people relate it to the events following the 1798 rebellion in Ireland.
Jim Carroll

DERRY GAOL, sung by Sarah Makem, Keady, Co. Armagh; recorded by Peter Kennedy and Sean O'Boyle. This is certainly one of the finest folk ballads recorded on either side of the Atlantic in this century. It uses the pattern of the medieval Fair Maid from the Gallows to tell a story that can be interpreted as both revolutionary and romantic. Sarah Makem, who performs the song in superb style, here gives her view of the story:

A young gentleman fell in love with a rich lady and her parents didn't want him to get her, and she fought hard to get him and she went away to the Queen and got pardon. She took her Willie and she married him and defied her parents—she was right. I didn't blame her one bit. He was the fellow she wanted and she was right to take him.
Reference:
Sam Henry No 705.

1. Oh, it's after morning, there comes an evening.
And after evening another day.
And after a false love, there comes a true one.
It's hard to hold them that will not stay.

2. As he went walking up the streets of Derry,
I'm sure he marched up right manfully;
He was more like a commanding officer
Than a man to die on the gallows tree.

3. The very first step he went up the ladder,
His blooming colours began to fail,
With heavy sighs with dismal cries,
"Is there no releasement from Derry Gaol."

4. The very next step he went up the ladder.
His aged mother was standing by—
"Come here, come here, my old aged mother
And speak one word to me before I die."

5. The very next step he went up the ladder.
His aged father was standing by.
"Come here, come here, my old aged father.
And speak one word to me before I die."

6. The very next step he went up the ladder.
His loving clergyman was standing by.
"Stand back, stand back, you old prosecutors,
I'll let you see that he will not die."

7. "I'll let you see that you dare not hang him.
Till his confession unto me is done;
And after that, that you dare not hang him.
Till within ten minutes of the setting sun."

8. "What keeps my love, she's so long a-coming ?
Or what detains her so long from me ?
Or does she think it a shame or scandal
To see me die on the gallows tree ?"

9. He looked around and he saw her coming.
As she rode swifter than the wind.
"Come down, come down, off that weary gallows.
For I bear pardon all from the Queen."

10. "Come down, come down, off the weary gallows.
For I bear pardon all from the Queen,
I'll let them see that they dare not hang you.
And I'll crown my Willie with a bunch of green."