Carrickfergus, like many Irish songs, has English words overlaid on an older Gaelic song. In this case, it's likely a few hundred years old, but the modern version only dates form the 19th century and the Industrial revolution. Songs have a long life, like trees.
It is interesting that the original Irish song was a baudy happy one about wanting to shag a noblewoman, but the modern English one is one of sad longing, nostalgia and alcoholism.
I'd sing it myself but I've a cold, so here's my favourite version:
D Em A D Bm
I wish I was in Carrickfergus,
Em A D Dsus4
only for nights, nights in Ballygran
Em A D Bm
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
Em A D Dsus4
the deepest ocean, for my love to find
D Bm A
But the sea is wide, and I cannot swim over
Bm D A
And neither have I the wings to fly
Em A D Bm
I wish I could find me a handy boatman
Em A D Dsus4
To ferry me over, to my love and die.
D Em A D Bm
My childhood days, bring back sad reflections
Em A D Dsus4
of happy times, spent so long ago
Em A D Bm
my boyhood friends, and my own relations
Em A D Dsus4
have all passed on now, like the melting snow
D Bm A
but I'll spend my days, in endless roaming
Bm D A
soft is the grass, my bed is free
Em A D
oh to be back now, in Carrickfergus
Em A D
on that long road down, to the salty sea
D Em A D Bm
and in Kilkenny, there it is reported,
Em A D Dsus4
there are marble stones there, as black as any ink
Em A D Bm
With gold and silver, I would support her,
Em A D G D
But I'll sing no more now, 'till I get a drink.
D Bm G A
For I'm drunk today, and I'm seldom sober,
Bm D G A
A handsome rover from town to town
Em A D Dsus4
Ah, but I'm sick now, my days are numbered,
Em A G D
Come all you young men and lay me down.
Em A G D
Come all you young men and lay me down.
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