She Moved Through The Fair Lyrics

Song Details

🎶 Music: Traditional - The song appears in the collection "Irish Love Songs" (1909) edited by the collector, Herbert Hughes, where he states that the melody originated in County Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland.

✍️ Lyrics: Padraic Colum (1881-1972) - Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore.

Padraic had already found the verse of a traditional old Irish song, and wrote two verses to complete the song. He sent the verses to be published when he realised that it needed a third verse to explain that the young woman in the song had died.

The first version of the song was published without the third verse, but subsequently the fourth verse was added. To this day, many versions are still recorded without the third verse, including the featured video in this session.

Please Note:
In this version of the song, the first line of the third verse is:
"Last night she came to me, she came softly in"

In some other references, the first line of the third verse is:
"Last night she came to me, my dead love came in" OR
"Last night I did dream that my love she came in"

📝 Song Brief: The song follows a young man who watches his beloved walk away from him at a fair, unaware that this will be the last time he sees her alive. Later, she appears to him in a dreamlike visitation, promising that “it will not be long” until their wedding day — a line understood as a message from beyond the grave.

• The Fair — A place of life, community, and possibility. In the song, it represents the couple’s shared hopes and the last moment of normality before tragedy.
• Your Lack of Kine: “Kine” is the Middle English and Scots plural of “cow.” In traditional rural society, cattle represented wealth, so “your lack of kine” simply means “your lack of property or riches.” The line reassures the listener that her father will not judge the young man for being poor.
  In some printed versions, the phrase appears as “your lack of kind.” This is generally understood to carry the same meaning — “kind” here being a dialectal or variant form that also refers to family, kin, or possessions. Both readings point to the same idea: the father will not slight the suitor for his lack of wealth.
• The Star Awake — A traditional symbol of guidance and the presence of the supernatural. It hints that the world is shifting from the ordinary to the otherworldly.
• The Swan — A long‑standing Celtic symbol of transition between worlds, often associated with love, death, and the soul’s journey.
• The Night Visit — A classic motif in Irish and Scottish folklore, where a deceased lover returns in a dream or vision to offer comfort or a final message.
• “It will not be long, love” — A gentle but chilling promise of reunion in death, rather than in life.

🍀 Genre: Traditional Irish Folk Song

👥 Covers: Sinead O’Connor, Andrea Corr, Van Morrison and The Chieftains, Cara Dillon, Loreena Mckennitt, John McCormack, Deirdre Shannon, Meg Davis, Lothlorien, Katie McMahon, Shannon Mccall, Sarah Dinan, The Dubliners, Mary Black, Anne Briggs, Shirley Collins, Odetta, Jean Redpath, Cy Grant, Josh Groban, Elvis Costello, The King's Singers, Nyle Wolfe, Rebsie Fairholm, Rhys Meirion, Liosa, Siobhán Owen, Rising Gael, Laura Sullivan and many more.

🎤 Featured Artists: Celtic Woman

💿 Album: Voices Of Angels
Recorded: 12–13, 15 August 2016
Released: 18 November 2016 (US, Canada and Ireland), 30 March 2017 (Europe)
Format: CD
Label: Manhattan

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