It's certainly the case that the song has been found most often in oral currency in the North of Ireland, though it has also turned up in England and Scotland. As we already know, it was printed on broadsides from -at any rate- the late 1830s; pretty much throughout England according to listings in the Roud Index and the index of the Madden broadside collection. Presumably it was also issued in Ireland, though where it actually started out can't be said for sure at the moment.

It's unclear where Sandra Kerr got her date of 1843. There is a broadside at the Bodleian, The blooming goddess. Or Country girl (Harding B 19(119b)) which has the right opening line, but there are no details of date or printer, and no image is available.

The broadside editions tend to have a happy ending, as do a fair few of the oral versions; so it's unsafe to draw conclusions that are too generalised, as Sandra and others seem to have done. As usual with folksong, it's not quite that simple; and the imposition of modern political sensibilities, which may in some situations enhance our understanding, may in others cloud it.