As I rode down to Gartan fair I met a girl upon the way: The winter night was on her hair, The summer dawn was in her eye. And O, she stepped with such a gait, And bore her round black head so high, And tossed it so, I knew her straight For Sile of the Silver Eye. “God save you, Sile, love,” says I: “God save you kindly,” murmured she— And love was welling in her eye As she dropped me the courtesy. The mountain boys upon the road Were at themselves for jealousy When they saw Seamus win the nod From Sile of the Silver Eye. We rode together to the fair, We danced together on the green; And faith they say a suppler pair Was ne’er before a piper seen. Black Sile of the Silver Eye Has been my wife for twenty year, And still her sloe-black head is high, And still her eye is silver clear. And God be praised, we have a girl, As like her as like well can be— The round black head, the roguish curl, The soft tongue and the silver eye. God bless the old, God bless the new, And send them stout posterity— Old Sile and young Sile, too— Both “Sile of the Silver Eye!”
Three traditional Ulster airs
Song Cycle by (Herbert) Hamilton Harty, Sir (1879 - 1941)
?. Black Sheela of the silver eye  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by Joseph Campbell (1881 - 1944), as Seosamh MacCathmhaoil, "Black Sile of the Silver Eye", appears in The Mountainy Singer, Dublin, Maunsel and Company, first published 1909
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Confirmed with Seosamh MacCathmhaoil, The Mountainy Singer, Dublin, Maunsel and Company, 1909, page 64.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 215