I guess I'm just trying to figure out how this version being (mostly) propagated in the U.K. (the Cuffe/Waterson version: the first text in this thread (and the one in the DT) and the Mo Rùin Geal Dìleas tune) relates to what was and/or is sung on Cape Breton. They both name Songs and Stories from Deep Cove, so I suspect there's one person who encountered it there and altered it to their taste, and that others have picked it up from there. But, had this person encountered other versions, to have picked up the Mo Rùin Geal Dìleas tune? Did he or she rearrange the verse order on their own or did s/he know of the Creighton version (and where did s/he find the Creighton version??).

I was on Cape Breton this summer, but didn't connect with any singing...

It's a song I'm enjoying singing, but I like to get to the source, if not to sing that, then at least to understand where what I'm singing came from. But, again, I have a feeling these are questions whose answers are lost in the folk process.

But, I will go ahead and send John O'Donnell a note and see what comes of it.

~ Becky in Tucson