Further to my last post and after reading others it's worth adding a couple of points. Couple of people rightly point out that the term 'Handsome' long ago oftenmeant not good looking but very good or adept, growning up in Castlecomer In can recall a particularly good musician being referred to as 'a handsome fiddler' and the fiddler in question being far from good loooking.

A few other people refer to the song Peggy Gordon as a possible source of the 'Marble stone as black as ink' I think that's very doubtful. Firstly I'm fairly sure Peggy Gordon is of Scottish origin, secondly the late Luke Kelly in his own words is attributed as discovering in while visiting a Folk club in wolverhampton around 1967 (just 3 miles from where I am now) and brought it back to Ireland and popularised it, so much so it's often classed as an Irish song there. And finally as one who performs Peggy Gordon often, I've never seen a line mentioning Marble stone. Of course there are other versions I might not have seen. By the way there is now a very fine mining museum in Castlecomer with a fascinting, often moving virtual reality tour, proud to say many of my family worked down in the infamous mine