Thanks everyone for your interest and help. Here's a version by Jim O' Neill, Markethill Co Armagh, 1952, recorded by Peter kennedy.

THE MOORLOUGH SHORE

Your hills and dales and flowery vales That lie near the Moorlough shore Your wynds that blow by bog and grove Will I ever see you more? Where the primrose grows and the violet blows Where the trout and salmon play With my line and hook delight I took To spend my youthful days

As I went out to see my love And hear what she might say To see if she'd take pity on me Just before I'd go away She said: I loved an Irish lad And he was my only joy And ever since I saw his face I loved that soldier boy

Perhaps your soldier lad was lost Sailing over the raging main Or perhaps he's gone with some other girl You may never see him again Well if my Irish lad is lost He's the one I do adore And for seven years I'll wait for him On the banks of the Moorlough shore

Farewell to Sinclair's castle grand Farewell to the Folly Hill Where the linen webs lie bleaching green And the purling streams runs still Near there I spent my youthful days But alas they are all o'er For cruelty has banished me Far away from the Moorlough shore

I first heard this song by Dolores Keane and assumed that the "moorlough shore" wasn't a specific place name, meaning simply "by the side of a lake". Then I managed to get the old recording by John McGettigan (1882-1965), from Donegal, which seems to place the song specifically at Moorlough Bay, near Ballycastle, in North Antrim. After reading your notes John, it seems that the origins of the song are lost with it being likely that different localities have adopted it and adapted it by grafting on local place names, like Flower of Sweet Strabane, another old song peserved by McGettigan's 30s recording. Does the reference to linen "bleaching greens" point to south Ulster rather than north? Anyway, it's a lovely song and one of these days I'll find Sinclair's Castle, if it evere existed!