"Wrong country, but I think there's a Ballad of the Thirteenth Lock in Dublin that starts something like:

O list and hear my story, I'll sing to you a song,
It's only forty verses so I won't detain yiz long… "

Songs about Irish canals are included on the 'Songs of the Inland Waterways' website.

Is this the song to which you were referring?

Twelve Lock Dublin Canal