Source: Hartnett in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland¹

Also appears in Petrie as ‘My Love Has Gone – My Heart is Sore’, about which he writes:

‘The very pleasing melody which follows is one of those obtained from the county of Mayo, through the kindness of Mr. P. J. O’Reilly, of Westport, and for which I have already expressed my grateful acknowledgment in connexion with the beautiful air Ni Threigfidh mo ghradh go deoidh me, or, “My Love will ne’er forsake me,” given at page 18. Of the words sung to it I have no remark to offer, as they have not been transmitted to me. But in reference to the melody, it should, perhaps, be observed, that its construction is, like many others from the same locality, somewhat peculiar, particularly in the second strain or part, which commences like a repetition or variation of the corresponding phrase of the first part, but, in the phrase following, surprises the ear by a graceful progression into the relative minor, and then returns, by a skilful transition in the succeeding phrase, to the usual close, as found in the first part.’²

1. Francis O’Neill, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Melodies. Chicago, Lyon & Healy, 1903, p95, #544.
2. George Petrie (ed.), The Petrie Collection of The Ancient Music of Ireland, Arranged for Piano-Forte, Vol. I. Dublin: Printed at the University Press for The Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, by M. H. Gill, 1855, p44.