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My name is Pat O'Reilly the truth I'll now make known,
For I was born in Ireland the county of Tyrone.
My parents reared me tenderly having no child but me,
With them I lived contented till the age of twenty-three.
At length I took a notion to cross the raging sea,
To seek of some employment unto Americay;
To seek of some employment a fortune to obtain,
When I have it well secured to return straight home again.
I had a loving sweetheart, Ann McCormick was her name,
When she heard that we were parting straight way to me she came,
Saying, "Pat, can this be possible you're going to prove unkind,
And leave me here broken-hearted and sorrow here behind?"
I said, "Dear Ann, don't you lament, it's you that I adore
My daily thoughts will be on you while on Columbia's shore,
If ever I return again, if God spares me my life,
Here is my hand in promises, I'll then make you my wife."
With this she seemed quite satisfied and home straight she did go;
'Twas early then next morning, to Captain Pilot went;
She swore that I seduced her and used her barb'ously,
And thought to force her to a pool where she would quickly drown.
Police, they then surrounded me as you may understand,
They marched me off to county jail by the magistrate's command;
'Twas there I lay in irons until my trial day,
But little was my notion that she sweared my life away.
The thirty-first of July last my trial now it begun,
And went from early morning until the setting sun;
She swore that I seduced her and used her barb'ously,
And robbed her of her purse of gold upon the mossy lea.
The maid now by description so lovely and so fair,
This maid she must be rightified for all that she did swear;
The jury charged the victim, the judge did loudly cry:
"For your cruelty unto this maid, young Reilly you must die."
My mother being advanced in years, having no child but me,
How can she stand to see her son die on the gallows tree?
I never injured that false maid that swore my life away.
May the Lord have mercy on my soul, good Christians, for me pray!
This variant was collected in 1951 from James Heaney of Stock Cove, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.159-160, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
MacEdward Leach collected two other variants in 1951 from John Bulger and John James, both of Trepassey, NL, which were published as Pat O'Reilly in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
An older variant was collected by compiler and editor Manus O'Conor, and published in 1901 as Patrick Riley in Old-Time Songs And Ballads Of Ireland, p.35, by the Popular Publishing Company, New York.
