The Hanging of a Carlow Boy
Author : Unknown

The Hanging of a Carlow Boy
Author : Unknown

The song uses the melody of the well-known 'Croppy Boy' but it is localised to south Carlow, home of the feared Myshall Militia

Early, early last Thursday night
The Myshall cavalry gave me a fright:
In my misfortune and sad downfall
I was prisoner taken by Cornwall.

In his guardhouse there I was tried
And in his parlour my sentence tried’
My sentence passed and passed very low,
Unto Duncannon I was obliged to go.

As I was going up the mountain high
Who would blame me then for to cry?
I looked behind me, then before,
And my tender parents saw and then ne’er saw more.

When my poor parents did hear the news
They followed me with money and clothes;
Five hundred guineas they would lay down
To let me walk upon sweet Irish ground.

They guarded me through Borris town,
The bloody Orangemen did me surround.
The captain told me he’d let me free
If I would bring him one, two or three.
‘I’d rather die or be nailed to a tree
Than traitor turn to my country.

In Duncannon ‘twas my lot to die,
And in Duncannon does my body lie
And every one that does pass by prays
’ The Lord have mercy on the Roman boy.’