G'day Martin,

The song also got to Australia: John Meredith collected a 4-stanza version from Sally Sloane of Teralba, NSW, in the 1950s. Sally was a wonderful source of material ... raised in a family of railway workers and, by a sort of community agreement, she beacme the singer of the group. John collected well over 200 songs and tunes from Sally over about 18 months of visits.

The version was farly close to that in O'Lochlainn's Irish Street Ballads and the tune was clearly related. Sally learned this song from one of the railway workers, not from her family store of (mostly) Irish songs and tunes.

Regards,

Bob Bolton