Pardon my ignorance regarding the relation. To me My Boy Willy and Butcher Boy are part of one large continuum. And after all, the melodies of the two are nearly identical. But if there's a non-arbitrary distinction, I'd like to know.

The song was on what was apparently a live LP/Album, recorded in the United States. As I recall it the introduce it as: "The words of this next song, were being song around the city of Belfast well over a hundred years ago, and we've come up with a tragic little love song; about lost love."


Aarg, I've done it again: It turns out the song is called "My Boy Willie". It was on the Album/LP "The Irish Rovers", which as a CD is now called "The First of The Irish Rovers".

Several other wordings of the song are on the net, among which is http://ingeb.org/songs/itwaeaea.html:

It was early, early all in the Spring,
That my boy Willie went to serve the King,
The night was dark and the wind blew high;
It was then I lost my dear sailor boy.

2. The night is long and I can find no rest,
The thought of Willie runs in my breast,
I'll search the green woods and village wide,
Still hoping my true love to find.

3. "Oh, father, father, give me a boat,
Out on the ocean that I may float,
To watch the big boats as they pass by,
That I might enquire for my sailor boy."

4. She was not long out upon the deep,
When a man-o-war vessel she chanced to meet,
Saying, "Captain, captain, now tell me true,
If my boy Willie is on board with you."

5. "What sort of boy is your Willie dear,
Or what sort of a suit does your Willie wear?"
"He wears a suit of the royal blue,
And you'll easy know him for his heart is true."

6. "Oh, then your boy Willie, I am sorry to say,
Has just been drowned the other day,
On yon green island that we pass by,
'Twas there we laid your poor sailor boy."

7. She wrung her hands and she tore her hair,
And she sobbed and sighed in her despair,
And with every sob she let fall a tear,
And every sigh was for her Willie dear.

8. "O, father, make my grave both wide and deep,
With a fine tombstone at my head and feet;
And in the middle a turtle dove
That the world may know that I died of love."

9. Come all you sailors who sail along
And all you boatmen who follow on.
From the cabin-boy to the mainmast high
Ye must mourn in black for my sailor boy.


This version has the gaps in the lyrics filled with verses I didn't know. As a result it also show more relation to the land-based versions. But important for me: it shows the garbled word to be "island". The version of the Irish Rovers apparently doesn't make much sense there, which would explain why I never guessed. Unfortunately, this second version has other bits that don't quite fit. Further digging will apparently be necessary.

                                 Mysha