 Folk memories in the 17th century, when the song was possibly written, were no doubt still very fresh concerning the various retributive massacres between Irish natives and Protestant settlers in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.At the climactic scene of C. S. Lewis's novel "That Hideous Strength", when protagonists are preparing for a dangerous fateful encounter with their enemies, the character MacPhee, an Ulster Protestant, is shown humming "The Boyne Water".Lewis gives a slightly deviant text