The Rose of Mooncoin is a ballad written in the 19th century by local schoolteacher and poet Watt Murphy, who was catholic,[1] who met and gradually fell in love with a local Protestant girl called Elizabeth, also known as Molly, and set in Mooncoin, Ireland.
Both were intellectuals, and they would often stroll along the banks of the River Suir, composing and reciting poetry.
It has been recorded by, amongst others, Marika, Anna McGoldrick, Daniel O'Donnell, Paddy Reilly, Patsy Watchorn, Phil Coulter, Johnny McEvoy[2] and The Wolfe Tones.
[citation needed] "How sweet 'tis to roam by the sunny Suir stream, And hear the dove's coo 'neath the morning's sunbeam.
Where the thrush and the robin their sweet notes combine On the banks of the Suir that flows down by Mooncoin.