Teribus - you can't use the modern verses to support an argument about its origin!

And if the first of the original verses gives a romantic view, then the second presents the reality. And it doesn't say 'we'.

Will ye go to Flanders, my Mally-O?
And see the chief commanders, my Mally-O?
You'll see the bullets fly,
And the soldiers how they die,
And the ladies loudly cry, my Mally-O

And if Mally was regarded as a term for 'mate' or 'marra', then the second verse would be a response to the first verse.