Mmario

I have that song (almost identical words, but different tune on the Grehan Sisters 1967 LP "On the Galtymore Mountains" where it's given as "trad, arr Grehans". The sleeve notes say:

This is a traditional ballad which the Grehans learned from their mother, who does not sing, but used to recite "The Fairy Boy" as a poem. The story was probably based on an old tradition prevalent in Ireland many years ago. When a beautiful child died, a mother believed that the original child had been taken by the fairies and a sickly elf left in its place. Some mothers used to dress their little boys in frocks to fool the fairies. This tradition is still carried out in some parts of Ireland.

I'll post the Grehans tune in the next few days if I get time. The Lover tune is hymn-like: Berni(c)e Grehan sings it like an Irish air, unaccompanied apart from a low drone-type accompaniment on guitar

A Mother came when stars were paling,
Wailing round a lonely spring,
Thus she cried while tears were falling,
Calling on the Fairy king.
"Wildwood spells my child caressing,
Courting him with fairy joy,
O why take a Mother's blessing,
Wherefore take my baby boy!"

"Over hills and down through valleys,
Where his childhood lov'd to play,
Where the flow'rs are freshly springing,
There I wander, day by day,
There I wander, ever fonder
Of the child who made my joy,
Calling on the wild winds blowing,
To restore my Fairy boy."

"But in vain my plaintive calling
Tears are falling all in vain,
He now sports with fairy pleasures;
He's the treasure of their train!
Fare thee well my child for ever,
In this world I've lost my joy,
In the next we ne'er shall sever
There I'll find my Angel boy."

Who's Samuel Lover? Irish? American? thief? And what's the Secession?

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 18-Jul-02.