Malcolm and weepiper, thanks again. It would seem from what Malclom has said that Thugamar féin an samradh linn may be a sort of floating refrain, associated witha number of different songs.

However on the IRTRAD-L forum a version of this song is given from Ár gCeol Feinig, Pádraig Breathnach, Browne & Nolan, 1920 collected "from a priest in Connaught". This tells more or less the same story, but without the death ,feigned or otherwise, of the husband.The chorus goes:

Samradh, samradh, bainne na ngamha,
Thugamar féin an samradh linn,
Thugamar linn é, cé bhainfidh dinn é,
Thugamar féin an samradh linn.

Trans.:Summer, summer, milk of the calves,
we have brought the summer with us,
we brought it with us ,who will take it from us?
we have brought the summer with us
BTW Re. The Brown and the Yellow Ale/Earl does anybody know about the origin of the translation? It is not by James Joyce (as Debby McClatchy claimed in her misleading notes), nor can I find it in the Collected Poems of James Stephens.