"Rose Connoley": An Irish Ballad

Abstract

ROSE CONNOLEY OR DOWN IN THE WILLOW GARDEN (Laws F 6)1 belongs to the sweetheart pattern in which a girl stated or assumed to be pregnant is murdered by her lover, who is usually brought to justice in one manner or another. Ballads in this pattern found in Britain, Ireland, and North America (for example, Jealous Lover, Laws F 1; Poor Omie, Laws F 4; On the Banks of the Ohio, Laws F 5;2 Wexford Girl, Laws P 35; Cruel Ship's Carpenter, Laws P 36; Old Oak Tree, Laws P 37; James McDonald, Laws P 38; Pat O'Brien, Laws P 393) are closely related and have influenced each other to the extent that it is difficult to discuss a single example of the pattern. My concern in this article, however, is-insofar as possible-with the Rose Connoley textual manifestation of the pattern. For lack of evidence, Rose Connoley has been treated as a native American ballad, but one of the editors of Volume II of the Brown Collection summed up what has been the private conclusion of a number of American ballad scholars: One supposes that it [Rose Connoley] is an Irish stall ballad, but I have found it reported only from the United States.4 Other than clues furnished by the texts themselves, the one piece of evidence has been a tune in the Bunting collection titled Rose Connoley noted as collected in Coleraine in 1811.s The melody is an unusual but recognizable form of