"McCafferty" (Roud 1148) is an Irish folk ballad about British Army Private Patrick McCaffrey, executed in 1862 for the "fragging" of two officers.
[2] The song is set to the traditional Irish tune "Cailín Óg a Stór", which is the same melody used for "The Croppy Boy".
Deserted by his father while young, Mrs. McCaffery sent him to England to stay with a friend, Mrs. Murphy of Mossley near Manchester, where, at the age of 12, he started work in a local mill, later moving to Stalybridge.
Hanham and the commanding officer of the Fulwood depot, Col. Hugh Crofton, were walking across the barracks square when McCaffery loaded his musket and fired at them, at a distance of 65 yards (59.4 m), causing both to stagger and fall.
The street ballad that was written sometime afterwards found the popular ear amongst the large Catholic Irish population of the North West of England.