I have known and sung this song for many years but was unaware that it was one of Percy French's. My memory failed me when I tried to sing it last night, for which I apologise. I forget who I got my version from: there are a few small differences, but nothing very significant. "Kilkirk" should be "Kilcock" and "Hillardown" should be "Hill of Down", those both being places along the Royal Canal.

There are several songs about similarly disastrous voyages on various canals. Perhaps the most widespread is The Cruise of the Calabar, the original of which was probably the version describing a voyage of a few hundred yards in Liverpool, but which was adapted to refer to canals in other places. Cyril Tawney moved it to the Teignmouth and Newton Canal in Devon.

We had a thread here recently about a voyage through Manchester.