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Whiskey In The Jar

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The mountains referred to in the song are the Shehy Mountains, located on the border of County Cork and County Kerry in southwestern Ireland. The general plot of Whiskey in the Jar resembles that of a contemporary broadside ballad Patrick Fleming, an Irish highwayman who was executed in 1650. It is believed that John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera in 1728 was inspired after John Gay heard Whiskey in the Jar.

Patrick Fleming was no hero; he murdered, robbed, and maimed rich and poor alike, including women and children before his capture. He once robbed the Archbishop of Tuam in west-central Ireland, reportedly taking 1,000 pounds sterling (a little over $1200) from him. Fleming was captured after robbing a nobleman of 250 pounds sterling, and transported to a prison in Cork. He made a legendary escape from his cell by scrambling up a chimney but was eventually recaptured several years later when the landlord’s wife of a house Fleming and his accomplices frequented soaked the gang’s pistols in water prior to the sheriff arriving with his men to arrest Fleming and his 14 men. Fleming was hung on April 24, 1650 in Dublin.

Songs of highwaymen attacking agents of the British crown, such as Captain Farrell of the British Army, were very popular with Irish and British commoners. The song became an American colonial favorite for much the same reason, its irreverent attitude toward British officials.
Category
Highway Men
Tags
#music, #acoustic guitar, #colonial
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