Standard (EADGBE)

In flowery July, neath Comrose proud heights

As the plovers come down from moor end

And southward the cuckoo is taking his flight

And the corncrakes are deep in the grass

The swallow and swift were aloft in the air

And the starling was feeding her young

The milkmaid was tending her cattle with care

And the haymakers che-eri-ly sung

Chorus

Oh ladies of Dublin in satin or silk

Are pretty I clearly confess

Oh but give me the maid

Who is neatly ar-rayed

In beautiful calico dress

You may talk of the Italia ladies in vain

Or the maidens of France or Peru

You may worship the languishing beauties of spain

Or the blushing Carpathians too

But the one that I love, has the eyes like the sloe

And her cheeks are like roses in June

How graceful she slips, as she trips like the doe

And her ruby red lips are in tune

Chorus

If fortune or friendship compels me to roam

Or a thirst for some changes constrain

I’d still call the banks of old Muenster me home

And I’d sing of it’s praises again

Sweet gardens of roses or our cultured bowers

Would delight a poor soul to possess

But give me old Comrose, bedecked with wild flowers

And the maid in the calico dress

"The Maid In The Calico Dress

This delightful song has evolved through a circuitous route that spans many years. It

a poem first, written by Henry Nutter, who came from Lancashire, in the nineteenth

It endured the years and cultural changes, until it was recently set to music by Gerry

from Oldham, Lanes, from whose singing I learned it. It's a lovely landscape of the

between a man and his woman, which I have set on the graceful slopes of the Comeragh

in the County Waterford." - Danny Doyle