Wellsy wrote, "I have seen a video of Paul Brady singing the Gaelic words to this song." In the early 1970s when I knew Paul Brady, he used to sing a Gaelic language song to the same melody as "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore." That is not the same song and its name translated into English is "The Green Glens of Gweedore."

I believe John Moulden's comments above answer the origin question for the popular version of "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore." If anyone would like to look at another set of words for the same song, look at the 2 books John mentions. The Sam Henry collection gives this note, "Another version has been received from the Articlave district, where the song was first sung in 1827 by an Inishowen ploughman." If we don't know the name of the author, it's at least partially because the song was probably very local and is 200 or more years old.

All the best,
Dan