Surely the most spectacular version of the song was that MacColl sand on the Riverside series -
Pat once sang it in a singing session during the Willie Clancy School here in Miltown Malbay back in the seventies
Half an hour later, Seamus Ennis came in and a singer from Cork said to him: "This woman has a beautiful version of "Long a-Growing".
Without hesitation, Ennis replied "I have a better one".
That was Seamus for you
Jim Carroll

The trees they are ivied, the leaves they are green,
The times they are past that we hae seen;
In the lang winter nicht, it's I maun lie my lane
For my bonnie laddie's lang, lang a-growing.

"O faither, dear farther, ye had dune me muckle wrang,   
For you hae wedded me to a lad that's ower young;
For he is but twelve and I am thirteen,
And my bonnie laddie's lang, lang a-growing. "

"O dochter, dear dochter, I hae dune ye nae rang,
For I hae wedded you tae a noble lord's son;
And he shall be the laird and you shall wait on,
And a' the time your lad'll be a-growing. "

"O faither, dear faither, if ye think it will fit,
We'll send him tae the scule for a year twa yet,
And we'll tie a green ribbon aroon aboot his bonnet
And that'll be a token that he's married.

"O faither, dear faither, and if it pleases you,
I'll cut my lang hair abune my broo;
And vestcoat and breeks I'll gladly put on,
And 1 tae the scule will gang wi' him."

She's made him a sark o' the holland sae fine,
And she has skew'd it wi' her fingers ain,
And ay she loot the tears doon   fall,
Saying, "My bonnie laddie's lang, lang a-growing."

In his twelfth year he was a married man,
And in his thirteenth he had gotten her a son,
And in his fourteenth his grave it grew green,
And that put an end tae his growing