There is another song titled "The Hungry Army," an Irish song ca. 1885 of the Marine Artilery, when pay was 4d a day. In the Traditional Ballad Index. Roud 1746, but apparently not the 1746 of Folktrax, cited above by Brucie, or so different as to be unrecognizable.

Lyr. ADD: THE HUNGRY ARMY

The wind in thundering gales did blow
As I left my home in black October,
The rain and hail in torrents came
And the world, I thought, was surely over.
The reason was my colleen dhas
And I fell out about cousin Barney,
So I bid farewell to hungry Kells
And I went into Dublin to join the army.

Rad le whack, fol ol the dol, ol the dol, ol the dol ay,
Fol ol the dol, ol the dol addy.

When I arrived in Dublin town,
I crossed the Liffey, that splendid river,
At the castle yard a big black guard
Asked me to enlist, the blacks to skiver.
I did agree, then he gave me
A gun, but the weight of it soon did warm me,
So I hired myself to the powers of Guelph
To go and smash China along with the army.

Next morning the corporal roars out, 'March!
In the barracks of Chatham you'll soon be quartered.'
'By the powers, I'll see that you won't quarter me,
For I didn't join you here to be slaughtered.'
The sergeant then said that I should be made,
But I knew that the colonel was tipping me blarney ---
Och! the stripes I got on an awkward spot!
When my back was aching I cursed the army.

In a ship as big as a town we sailed,
In every hole and corner stuffing us,
To keep out the coul' I went into the houl'
By my sowl, it wouldn't hold half enough of us,
We were smothered to death for want of our breath,
And bursting with hunger, which didn't much charm me,
We were ordered to land and make a brave stand.
They might easy say 'Stand' to a hungry army.

On the field of battle I hadn't been long
Until I was wishing it all to be over;
To let a ball pass I sat down on the grass,
I didn't imagine myself in clover.
Och, that ball I can tell was a great bomb shell,
I got struck in the rere, but it didn't much harm me,
When to the next charge we got orders to march,
I'd a lame excuse for a halt in the army.

Unfit for the service, I got my discharge,
'Hook it, you cripple,'says uncle Toby,
'A pension you'll get, or if not, you'll be let
Go out to Kilmainham to be an old fogey.'
Och, should I live for four score years
With a fogey's fire all day to warm me,
I'll remember the day I got gunpowder tay
When I went up to Dublin to join the army.

colleen dhas- sweetheart.
the blacks to skiver- to bayonet the foreign foe of the Ethiopian race; to kill black men.
powers of Guelph- the reigning royal family of England.
Uncle Toby- an army phrase for the authorities in charge.
old fogey- an old soldier.
Kilmainham- Royal Hospital for old soldiers.
gunpowder tay- military rations.

With music. From Hamilton Hemingway, ex Royal Constabulary, from John Doyle, Kildare Rifles, c. 1885.
"Sam Henry's Songs of the People, " p. 86, The University of Georgia Press.