MCCAFFERY

I was scarcely year eighteen years of age,
O, to join the army I was in full advance;
O, to join the army I was a-Full in defence,
For to join the (Forty for some) regiment.    (Forty-second)

Now, as I was put there all on guard one day
Three soldiers’ children came out to play;
They gave me orders for to take their names —
Well, I took one’s name there out of three.

I done the deeds, I shot his blood,
In old Liverpole his body lays.
O captain (mewater) I was content to kill
For I shot my colonel all against my will.

Well, I’ve got no mother to take my part,
I’ve got no father to break (my) heart.    (his)
I had one friend and a woman was she,
She would lay her life down for me again.

Singer: Caroline Hughes

Notes:
86 MCCAFFERY
A young man, McCaffery/McCafferty/McCassery, enlists in the Forty-Second Regiment (now known as The Black Watch), where he suffers victimisation at the hands of his captain. Con?ned to barracks for a trivial offence, his resentment builds up to the point where he determines to kill his persecutor. When the opportunity arises, he shoots his colonel by mistake. He is tried in a civil court (Liverpool Assizes is the most frequently cited venue), is found guilty and is finally hanged.
In spite of important narrative de?ciencies in Mrs. Hughes’s text, her rendition of the song was greeted by her listeners with a good deal of respectful comment: ‘That’s a true song, that really happened. That poor unfortunate young man was hanged with nobody to speak up for him.’ ‘He was Irish and the officer had it in for him. Because he was Irish, he was always pickin’ on him.’ Billy Cole, a young Wiltshire Traveller, was more explicit: ‘It was in the 1914 War, and he shot the colonel right through his heart. But he really meant to shoot the captain. And the only one to stick up for him was a girl, and a friend was she, and they hung him at Walton Gaol in Liverpool.’
The 1860s and 1880s are often given as dates for the events described but in point of fact the ballad’s historicity is a matter of considerable uncertainty and doubt. Whether the story is indeed fact or fiction, it has given rise to a song which is widespread throughout Ireland and the British Isles. Two world wars have undoubtedly contributed to the ballad’s dissemination and for tens of thousands of young men inducted into the Armed Forces ‘McCaffery’ has been a first introduction to traditional song.


Source: #86, pp 272-274 in Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger (University of Tennessee Press, 1977)