This is another of the Tunney favourites, a fine song probably written by one of Fermanagh’s hedge-schoolmasters. The songwriter is going a-fowling when he meets with this ‘spéirbhean’ who, he thinks, can be ‘no mortal but an angel that

fell from the skies’. Cupid, Phoebus, Aladdin and his lamp all get due mention and even the scriptures are invoked. The tune is a fine one and ideally suited to the Tunney style of phrasing and interpretation. The words and music have been published in The Irish Song Tradition by Seán O Boyle. 

Paddy’s mother knew one line of another verse which was otherwise lost. In due course, Paddy ‘recreated’ this verse and it runs: 

The fame of this fair one’s notorious, 

Her beauty descends from above.

All robed like a goddess in splendour 

And fanned by the fragrance of love.

I wish I were able to praise her. 

Her likes I have not seen before,

So, Mary got married to Willie 

And they live upon Lough Erne Shore. (JT)