“The Wexford Schooner”
Description
The singer dreams of Kelly shot on Tara Hill. Then he dreams of "a schooner down from Wexford town cast on Wicklow's coast." Captain Laurence Murphy and the crew, who "have met a watery grave," are named.
Notes
Wicklow county is north of Wexford. - BS
I have this funny feeling that this refers to the 1798, with Kelly being "Kelly, the Boy from Killane," wounded at the Three Bullet Gate at New Ross. The wrecked ship may be the one by which Bagenal Harvey, the commander at New Ross, tried to flee; according to Thomas Pakenham, _The Year of Liberty_, p. 268, Harvey was captured in a cave, though he doesn't mention a shipwreck. But this is only speculation based on very little information from the song. - RBW
References
- Ranson, p. 61, "The Wexford Schooner" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, Ran061