G'day Martin and McGrath,

Looking only at documentary sources ('m on the other side of the world ... but interested in the sources of Australian [unwilling] migration) I seem to remember Mayhew commenting, in one of his 1850 books, that many of the London costermongers were Irish - because it was an easily accessible (if scanty) living for newly-arrived, displaced people ... and this was just after the Great Famine!

However, selling apples doesn't take much capital or property ... dealing in junk and old iron needs: somewhere to put it (property) and enough money to afford to buy and hold before reselling (capital) - so I would expect that lay to be more local.

Of course, the song may be made up by Irish costermongers, on a slow day!

Regards,

Bob Bolton