[3] The oldest lyrics tell of the love of a local lady for a soldier serving in the eponymous regiment.
[4] William Frederick Wakeman in 1870 called it "an old song once, and to some extent still[,] popular on the banks of the Erne".
[5] Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914) wrote in 1909:[6] Sigerson's version adapts the chorus and replaces the verses entirely.
They were all dress’d out like gentleman’s sons, With their bright shining swords and carbine guns, With their silver mounted pistols, she observed them full soon, Because that she lov’d her Enniskillen draggoon.
[6] In 1966, song collector Hugh Shields recorded Eddie Butcher of Magilligan singing a similar version as a slow lament.