A version in Bill Meek, "Irish Folk Songs", Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997
puts a different slant on the conversation, more in line with the idea that this song is a comment on O'Connell's reputed sexual profligacy. Meek, a sometime columnist in the "Irish Times", does not give any further background information in this book.

Coming home from the fair I met an old woman
With a hump on her back and she blind of an eye,
The day being warm I sat down beside her,
"What news of this man?" the old woman did cry.
"Sure there's no news at all," replied the bold trabeller,
"Except that I'm wishing he never had been,
Concerning our hero brave Daniel O'Connell,
Who's now making children in Dublin by steam."

"O tanam on dia," [sic] replied the old woman,
"O children, a gra, are you crazy at last,
Or is it a sign of a war of rebellion,
O what is the reason they're making so fast?"
"It is not a sign of a war or rebellion,
But that this generation has grown too small --
And they're going to petition the new Lord Lieutenant,
So as not to depend on the old style at all."

"Oh, there's good men in Ireland as well as in England,
Stout-hearted young fellows by land and by sea,
And if all the young women of Ireland were like them,
O'Connell could throw his steam engine away.
But they are so pugnacious likewise vivacious[!],
When a young man comes near them they'll spit in his eye,
Which is why they all go as old maids to the corner,
Not a child for to pray for their soul when they die."

"I am an old woman of three score and ten,
With a hump on my back, ne'er a tooth to be seen,
If the rogue does provoke me I'll lay down a wager,
Sure I'll make better children than him and his steam.
Oh, there's good men in Ireland as well as in England,
Stout-hearted young fellows by land and by sea,
And if all the young women of Ireland were like them,
O'Connell could throw his steam engine away."