I've never heard of an English connection but a text of it can be found in Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs. Emily Lyle, ed. Scottish Text Society. 1975. Edinburgh. Which might I suppose suggest a Scottish provenance.

Although the song has become extremely common in Ireland in recent years, so far as I know the only traditional singers from whom the song has been collected were Mrs Elizabeth Cronin of Co. Cork and Crawfurd's informant Mary Macqueen of Renfrewshire, Scotland.