Bob,
Got the Hayward collection - no notes, not even a source.
The earliest reference I can find is in volume 1 of Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs (1909) - again no notes except to say it was from Co. Antrim and is 'a fragment of an old ballad'.
It also appears in Vol 7 of the Greig Duncan Collection.
Roud give only these 3 references, but I do remember it being sung by The McPeakes
Sorry, no more than that.
Jim Carroll