G'day Pooka,

The big give-away for modern writing is the line:

But my rifle's as bright as my sweetheart's eyes

All fighting (long) firearms of the period were smoothbored muskets, or similar. Rifles were sometimes used in hunting but were far too slow for miltary use until the mid 1850s when expanding base slugs (eg 'the Minie ball of the American Civil War) allowed faster reloading. As well, all service arms had a dull, usually brown, fire-'blued' finish ... never "bright"!

The author is clearly an Irish patriot ... not an historian.

(Yes - and rifles were not used in battle in the American War of Independence for the same reasons - they were used in sniping/skirmishing ... and a brilliant piece of propaganda when they revolutionary forces allowed a top rifleman to be captured by British gtroops about to sail home. His demonstrations of accurate, long-range rifle fire (not under battle conditions!) shot large holes in King George's recruiting campaigns.

Regards,

Bob Bolton