Greetings to you from New Zealand.

My girlfriend and I were first exposed to this song by the Metallica cover and liked it from the start. I must say I'm amazed to find this thread that still seems to be alive after 7 years! It took quite some finding (Google: "history of" "whisky in the jar" +Gaelic), but what a great discovery.

I was inspired to look into the history of the song while hearing it at 2am on the radio while eating jelly beans in a car park lookout above our coastal town (it really goes to show this song has truly done the rounds and possibly what a strange fellow I am).

The song still receives regular air time on the radio here, mostly in its Thin Lizzy incarnation but I have heard a couple of other covers I cannot identify. One rendition apparently backed by a harpsichord, which struck me as extremely odd but makes sense when you consider the age of the song.

I suspect that it made its way here in the 1960's based on comments I have heard from my mother and grandmother. It does however seem to have lost its reputation as a "knaves" song, being sung and known by almost everyone here at some point.

I never knew that there were any different lyrics and reading these posts really fills in the gaps left by Metalica/Thin Lizzy. Thank you to everyone past and present who have left these tit-bits.

Now I find myself wishing I could hear it performed live as so many have described it on here.