This song commemorates the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and, more specifically, the battle at Vinegar Hill outside Enniscorthy, County Wexford, on June 21, 1798 when over 15,000 British soldiers launched an attack. The Irish were routed and disbursed. The ballad lyrics were composed by Patrick Joseph McCall with music by Arthur Warren Darley, who also composed other Wexford ballads, "Boolavogue" and "Kelly the Boy from Killanne". Some sources say that the tune was traditional before the battle. The "Yeos" mentioned in the first verse were the yeoman cavalry unit of the British army who fled the battle of Oulart Hill on May 27, 1798 after their first casualty. Of the attacking militia, only four escaped alive. The tune is a typically heroic one and I always use it as an instrumental. I learned it from a recording by Bill Spence with Fennig's All-Star String Band. The Clancy Brothers also recorded it on their 1995 album, Older But No Wiser and the Wolfe Tones recorded it on their debut 1965 album The Foggy Dew. There must be a bawdy parody of this in Ireland that I don't know about. When I was talking to some fellows from Wexford and asked them if they knew the words because I didn't have any (at that time) their answer was "Jasus, you can't sing that in mixed company!" I haven't found those words yet. I play this tune in a medley with:       "The Flowers of Edinburgh"       "Gary Owen"       "The Irish Washerwoman"       "Scotland the Brave".