Whoops! I think I just posted this in the wrong "Blackwaterside" thread. (Editors, please delete the other one—or whichever one is in the wrong place—if you like.) Well, here it is:
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Here's how I sing this song. It's a beautiful song but I found it unsatisfying not only because it exhibited a cruel misogyny with no repercussions, but also because it lacked a satisfying ending (or any ending, really). So I finished the song on my own. It's rather maudlin, but then so many of that era are.

I've read that it's thought the song originated in Northern Ireland, but after considerable research I've decided to place it at the River Blackwater in Mallow, County Cork. There was a famous "Ten Arch Bridge" there, but I believe it was bombed and destroyed during the Irish Rebellion.
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Blackwater Side
Traditional; arrangement and additional lyrics © 2019 by Eric M. Bram

G                               C                  D
One morning fair as I chanced the air
          Em         F       G
Down by Blackwater side.
          C         G    C       G
It was gazing all around me
             C      Em   G
That an Irish girl I spied.

All in the fore part of the night
We rolled in sport and play
Till this young man arose and he put on his clothes
Saying, "Fare thee well today."

That's not the promise that you made to me
As you lay upon my breast.
You could've made me believe with your lying tongue
That the sun rose in the west.

Go home, go home to your father's garden.
Go home and cry your fill.
And think of the sad misfortune
You brought on with your wanton will.

        
There's not a flower in this whole wide world
More easily plucked than thee.
And when fishes can fly and seas do run dry
That's when you'll marry me.

She turned, she turned, and she slow walked away
Along Blackwater side.
And I called out "good day" and I went on my way.
And I could hear how she softly cried.

I went to the tavern, and I there drank my fill
Till I heard the news from the town.
That a young woman had jumped from the Ten Arch Bridge
And in the cold Blackwater had drowned.

Now there's not a man in this whole green land
More deservedly damned than I.
For she loved me the best and I drove her to her death.
And I'll know it until I die.

Coda/Outro:   Em   C   G