From the liner notes to the Riverside LP, "Bad Lads and Hard Cases," sung by Ewan MacColl, w. Peggy Seeger:

The Banks of the Royal Canal - I learned this unusual prison song from the singing of Brendan Behan of Dublin. When I asked him where he had learnd it, he answered, "In Mountjoy." And what were you doing thre?", I asked him. "Eight years," he said, "for shooting some detective sergeant or other, but praise be to God he was no countryman of ours."