Barbara Allen: O Teannaibh Dluth is Togaibh Fonn certainly uses a similar tune, but the version I have on a CD (Ar Canan 's Ar Ceo\l) is about compulsory exile, so it could have been written in North America. It was probably written after Barbara Allen, because the Highland Clearances began after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, long after Samuel Pepys had remarked about Barbara Allen. Therefore it probably doesn't help trace the origin of Barbara Allen. Down in the Willow Garden: There is a well-known Irish song called "Down By the Sally Gardens", and I seem to remember being told that Sally in this context was a corruption of an Irish word for willow. If so perhaps there could be some relationship between the two songs. The Sally Gardens are in Dublin.