Lighter

The "fisherman" tale attributed to Herbert Hughes sounds like a precis of a note in Sparling's Irish Minstrelsy mentioned by Malcolm Douglas earlier in the thread. In the 1888 second edition he writes:

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This favourite old song is here for the first time given complete. It dates from the beginning of the present century, when Irish regiments were so extensively raised for the East India Service. Because in one late version "Why did you run from me and the child" is made "why did you skedaddle.." and this word only came into use during the War of Secession, some have imagined this song to be of recent date, and have even attributed it to the Irish-American music-halls! My own memory carries it back to very near the war, when I heard an old fisherman sing it, to whom it was even then old. It was he who told me of its age and meaning, what I have said above, which is corroborated by the reference to Ceylon. It is hard to believe seriously that any one can read this wonderful piece of grotesquerie, with its mingling of pathos and ribald mockery so closely allied to the spirit that produced " The Night before Larry was Stretched" and be unable to see either its value of its genuineness!".
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The first edition (1887) only has the first two sentences of the above. This suggests he was challenged on the song's origins and marshalled the defence given.

Regards