That's one of Ewan's few tunes that was used unchanged - he heard it sung by elderly women on a holiday in Sicily (we have the recording)

In my opinion, Ewan's best songs were those he made using recorded actuality taken from the people who were recorded for the radio ballads and media programmes
A batch of them from the unbroadcast film, 'The Irishmen', Peggy gave us when he died remain under-sung - all based on talking to Irish Navvies - the only one that made it out of the lot of them was 'Tunnel Tigers'
I began to learn them when I realised how they related to the stories my father used to tell about his life on the rods - a great way to relate to your songs
Jim