Maureen Jollife in 'The Third Book of Irish Ballads' give a text of the song followed by Dr. George Sigerson's rewritten version (with music), "The Mountains of Pomeroy".
In the latter Sigerson take Renardine to be (chorus) 'An outlawed man in a land forlorn,/ He scorned to turn and fly/ But kept the cause of freedom safe/ All on the mountains high'.
This may be to some little extent be based on the (real) life of Edmund Ryan, "Ned of the Hill/Eamon o Chnoic", who didn't join the 'Wild Geese' and go to France after 1691, but stayed as an outlaw in Ireland. He was eventually pardoned, but was murdered by a bounty hunter before the pardon was publicized.
Sigerson's interpretation doesn't give Renardine any sinister qualities.