This Child ballad has been known in many parts of Ireland for many years but it may have originated in Scotland. Joyce, who heard it sung in County Limerick, acknowledges a Scottish connection, and Paddy Tunney tells me that it first appeared in print in David Herd’s collection of Modern and Ancient Scottish Songs which was published in 1775. The Lowlands of Holland is also to be found in Sam Henry’s Songs of the People under the title Holland is a Fine Place (The Lowlands of Holland is listed as another title). 

This was another of Brigid’s go-to songs that I heard her sing many times when I was young. She learned it when just a child of ten listening to her mother, Mary Gallagher (nee Meehan), sing it as she went about the kitchen doing household chores. 

The wonderful melody gave Brigid free reign to do the kind of singing that she loved. In terms of style, of attack, you can spot that this is a Meehan song from the way the melody is slowed so that the high notes can be held and emphasised, an approach which was typical of their style. (JT)