To improve upon what I wrote yesterday from memory, here is what Mick Moloney writes on the cover of a vinyl from '78:
"This is another I learned from Sean Cannon. The words were written by Bill Caddick from Wolverhampton. The tune he took from Peter Tchaikovsky's...Pathetique. However, Sean Cannonwas informed by Toni Savage, who studied opera and belcanto in Italy, that the tune was borrowed by the Russion composer from a Southern Italian lullaby entitled Piva Piva [any help, Ezio, or other Italians?]. So, in a remarkable way, the tune has come full circle."
After typing this I found that the gist of this information can actually be found in the notes to this song in the database. I'm impressed. Nevertheless I'll submit it, since maybe not everybody looks it up there.
Wolfgang