Marje, good find. I'd like to quote parts of it here, because it gives that Irish version of Rose Connolly. The blogger is Matthew Burns, and the entire entry, which is quite long, is well worth your time, but here are the parts that bear on our question:

http://appalachianlifestyles.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-search-of-rose-conelly.html

QUOTE

Most folks credit Ireland as the place of origin for Rose Conolly, and the Bunting Collection says it was collected in Coleraine in 1811. But in fact, the lyrics and tune are entirely different between the Bunting version and all later versions. In 1979, folklorist D.K. Wilgus searched for Rose Conolly in the archives of the folklore department of University College in Dublin, widely credited as being the repository for the most complete collection of Irish folklore. In my opinion, Wilgus research is the best available for tracking down the origins of Rose Conolly. He could find no exact match, but he did however, locate the following folksong that was collected in Galway in 1929, it is obviously akin to the Appalachian version of Rose Conolly.

Rosey O'Connell

It was on a Saturday morning
My true love and I did meet
Yonder a soddely garden
Our sorrows we did relate.

A bottle of poison I brought her
Of which she did not know
Which made me murder my darling
All under the banks below.

Rosey O'Connell she loved me
As dear as she loved her life
It was my whole intention
To make her my loving wife.

When it was the devil's temptation
That soon entangled me
Which made my murder my darling
All under the ivy tree.

My mother she reared me tenderly
For seven long years and more
But seldom she ever thought of
That the gallows would be my store

My father often told me
That money would set me free
But now I am found in this country
And its hung I'll surely be

I live in a castle of comfort
A little beyond the fair
Grief it is my comfort
And sorrow is my care.

My bolsted feathers are dingling
The whole length of day
I have but the cold floor to walk on
To pass the time away.

My father stood at the hall-door
With a watery eye
Looking at his only dear son
Hanging on the gallows so high

I leave it written on my tombstone
To read as they pass it by
That my name is James Mullrooney
That murdered Rosey O'Connell.

Since this version of the song was collected in 1929, it isn't exactly safe to say that it is the precursor to the Appalachian version of Rose Conolly, especially since there are documented versions of the song here in America that are dated before 1929. Added to this is the flow of folks songs at the time from America to Ireland ....

In fact, the earliest documented report of Rose Conolly in the United States was found in the oil fields of Wetzel County, West Virginia, in 1895. American folklorists subsequently found the same song with little variation in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and even as far west as Wisconsin. The Wisconsin link is attributed to lumber men who left Kentucky to work the timber camps in the Great Lakes region.

Interestingly, if you read the original lyrics to Rose Conolly that were gathered in Wetzel County, WV, you can get another clue as to where the song began. There is the line:

"I had a bottle of burgaloo wine,
My love she could not know,
That I would murder my darlin'
Down on the banks below".

Later versions of the song called it "burgundy wine", or "burglar's wine" but the earliest mention is "burgaloo wine". What is burgaloo wine? It is a type of pear wine that was commonly made in central Virginia in the late 1700's into the early 1800's.

UNQUOTE

So, there's your "burglar's wine" and all! But we still have a big job trying to trace the intermediate versions.

Once again, congratulations to Matthew Burns for his research and to Marje for locating it. Nice work, folks.

Bob