Now, this may be a makey-uppy by O'Brian, but in his Master and Commander he has a run that goes… well, wait a minute. The two people talking are Jack Aubrey, the eponymous, and Stephen Maturin, a United Irishman on his keeping after the slaughter that followed the 1798 Rising. It goes:

"…we waked old Terence Healy. He had been my grand-father's tenant. And there was a song they sang there has been in the middle part of my mind all day… there were English words as well. One line went –

Oh the wild geese a-flying a-flying a-flying
The wild geese a-swimming upon the grey sea

[and then he continues to sing]

They will never return, for the white horse has scunnered
Has scunnered has scunnered
The white horse has scunnered upon the green lea.
==

Is this an actual song, and is it still sung if so?

(And by the way, since he's using a term, scunnered, that I'd think of more Northern or Scottish, though I might be wrong there, I'm also seeking a translation from Scots or Northern Irish, for a term used in my family which I guess comes from their Scots roots: "luggish" Anyone out there who can give me a precise meaning?)