The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #21558   Message #4232707
Posted By: Lighter
09-Dec-25 - 09:09 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Newry Highwayman
Subject: RE: Origins: Newry Highwayman
Edward Bunting collected a version in Drogheda in 1803. The text is pretty much the familiar one, and the tune is easily recognizable as "The Croppy Boy."

For some reason Bunting gives the title as "The Robber, or Charley Reilly."

No Reilly (or anyone else) is mentioned in the lyrics.