"Kate Kearney - lyrics and MIDI file

Lyrics and MIDI file on the Contemplator's website at http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/kearney.html ... It's an old song, and the University of Minnesota library has a broadside at http://mh.cla.umn.edu/kate.html from the 1820s or 1830s that contains "Kate Kearney" in the left column and "Boyn Water" (CQ) in the right.

Kuntz' Fiddler's Companion has this.

KATE KEARNEY. AKA and see "When the cock crows it is day [3]," "The Big Bow Wow," "The Beardless Boy," "The Dissipated Youth [1]," "Giolla na Scriob," "Seanbhean Chrion an Drantain," "Ta an Coileach ag Fogairt an Lae [2]." Irish, Air or Waltz. G Major. Standard tuning. ABC (O’Neill): AABBCCDD (O’Farrell). The song "Kate Kearney" was written by Lady Morgan, however, the melody previously appeared as "The Beardless Boy" in Bunting (1796) and again in Bunting (1809) as "The Dissipated Youth". Murphy's Irish Airs and Jigs gave the title as “Kate Martin.” O’Farrell (c. 1810) set the tune in 6/8 time. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. IV), c. 1810; pg. 132. O’Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922.

And the tune turns up in Bentley's Miscellany Vol. 2 (1837), along with several parts of Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress, as "A New Song to the Old Tune of 'Kate Kearney'." It begins: "O, SAY have you heard of Duvernay ..." who was a dancer in London, no doubt Pauline Duvernay, a famous French danseuse of the period.

The Minnesota library's broadside is set up in a question-and-answer format. The question is substantially as most versions of the ballad. The answer is as follows:

O Yes I have seen this Kate Kearney,
Who lives near the lake of Killarney
From her love beaming eye what mortal can fly,
Unsubdued by the glance of Kate Kearney;
For that eye so bewitchingly beaming,
Assures me of mischief she's dreaming,
And I feel 'tis in vain to fly from the chain,
That binds me to lovely Kate Kearney.
At eve when I've met this Kate Kearney
On the flower mantled banks of Killarney
Her smile would impart thrilling joy to my heart,
As I gaz'd on the charming Kate Kearney;
On the banks of Killarney reclining,
My bosom to rapture resigning,
I've felt the keen smart of love's fatal dart,
And inhal'd the warm sigh of Kate Kearney.