Mention was made of this song in a related thread. I thought I'd post it here, to bring everybody back to reality.
-Joe Offer-

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I WISH MY LOVE WAS IN A DITCH

I wish my love was in a ditch
Without no clothing to her,
With nettles up and down her back,
Because she was not truer.

She kissed me with her red, red lips,
She swore she would be mine O;
But she swore the same to Alan O'Chree,
Who lives way down the line O.

Her belly grew big, her face grew pale,
But it was no fault of mine O;
It must have been that Alan O'Chree
Who lives way down the line O.

She swore the brat was mine alone,
And soon enough we were wed.
But I swear by the light of Kincastle Hill
She shall not share my bed.

from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina folklore, volume II

Notes:

This peculiarly forthright denunciation of an unfaithful mistress is perhaps part of North Carolina's Scottish inheritance. At any rate the song 'I Wish My Love Was in a Mire' in Jamieson's Popular Ballads and Songs (1806) has a like content, though not much verbal resemblance. I have not found it elsewhere. It is not the sort of thing that the ballad press commonly prints.

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Hey, there's even an entry on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index:

I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch

DESCRIPTION: "I wish my love was in a ditch, Without no clothing to her, With nettles up and down her back Because she was not truer." She had been involved with the singer and another; he claims her child was fathered by the other, and will not sleep with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love marriage infidelity pregnancy
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 126, "I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch" (1 text)
Notes: The editors of Brown suspect this is Scottish, but can cite no other texts (Jamieson has a piece "I Wish My Love Was In a Mire," but the parallels are thematic rather than verbal). - RBW
File: BrII126

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There's also an entry on "Bold O'Donohue," but none on "I Wish My Love Was a Red Red Rose."

Bold O'Donahue

DESCRIPTION: "Well, here I am from Paddy's land... I've broke the hearts of all the girls for miles round Keady town." The singer boasts of his ability to court, wishes his love were a rose so he could rain on her, and speaks of courting Queen Victoria's daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (fragment in the Sam Henry collection from 1924)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H10i, p. 3, "(Old Choir Rhymes -- Additional Verses, text #1)" (1 text)
DT, BOLDODON
Notes: The Sam Henry text (reportedly sung to the tune "Irish") is only a fragment, a dialect version of
I wish my love was a red rose
Beside yon garden wall,
And I myself a drop of dew
Upon that rose to fall.
This (half)-stanza almost certainly floats, but the only song I've met it in is "Bold O'Donahue," so here it files. - RBW
File: HHH010i

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2003 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Malcolm's message in this thread (click) is the best background information I've seen on "I Wish My Love..."