The Croppy Boy

Again, there are numerous versions of this song. I beleive this to be the most common. New Geneva, mentioned in the third verse, is near Passage, County Waterford, where a colony of Huguenots settled in 1783, but soon left for America. The British later used the place as a prison and torturehouse in 1798.

The text of the song is from a contempory broadsheet printed by Haly in Cork City. The text and tune were publishedtogether in M.J. Murphy's 'National Songs for Ireland' 1892.

The Croppy Boy

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Written by

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It was early, early in the spring

The birds did whistle and sweetly sing,

Changing their notes from tree to tree

And the song they sang was Old Ireland free.

It was early early in the night,

The yeoman cavalry gave me a fright;

The yeoman cavalry was my downfall

And I was taken by Lord Cornwall.

'Twas in the guard-house where I was laid,

And in a parlour where I was tried;

My sentence passed and my courage low

When to Dungannon I was forced to go.

As I was passing my father's door

My brother William stood at the door;

My aged father stood at the door

And my tender mother her hair she tore.

As I was going up Wexford Street

My own first cousin I chanced to meet;

My own first cousin did me betray

And for one bare guinea swore my life away.

As I was walking up Wexford Hill

Who could blame me to cry my fill?

I looked behind, and I looked before

But my aged mother I shall see no more.

And as I mounted the platform high

My aged father was standing by;

My aged father did me deny

And the name he gave me was the Croppy Boy.

It was in Dungannon this young man died

And in Dungannon his body lies.

And you good people that do pass by

Oh shed a tear for the Croppy Boy.

This page features music from Taylors Traditional Tunebook.

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