Here's the entry on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index. Shlomo Caine sang this beautifully.

Banks of Sullane

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets "a damsel of queenly appearance" and proposes; if he were king she'd wear a crown. Her father's angry looks discourages him. He will rove alone until death "for the sake of my charming fair Helen That I met in the town of Macroom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: courting separation father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCanainn, pp. 70-71, "The Banks of Sullane" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin-Cronin 145, "The Banks of Sullane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9718
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Banks of Sullane" (on IRClare01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Banks of Sullane" (on IRECronin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow" (tune)
cf. "Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)" (theme)
NOTES [22 words]: OCanainn: "One of the most popular English ballads of the Ballyvourney and Coolea area in West Cork."
Macroom is in County Cork. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcBaOSul

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