I did a version of this song in the 1950's, before I heard The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem do the song that has to be its Irish predecessor. The Irish song is edgier and has a defiant ring to it, where the American "lament" seems to evoke the hardscrabble life of makers of illicit booze in places like the West Virginia "Hollers."
I like them both and they are one good illustration of what happens to songs as they travel and begin to reflect new places and customs.

You could almost create a whole performance dedicated to the history and traditions of the moonshiner genre. Why does Foster Brooks come to mind.....?