some of you may remember Sam Hinton, he's still performing out in California, I think, though recorded in the fifties and then again much later. He has Arthur McBride on his "The Real McCoy, Irish Folk SOngs Selected and Sung by Sam Hinton", from 1957. He doesn't credit his source, from what I remember, but I'll look at the album this evening to make sure. Obviously the guitar arrangement of Paul Brady's is unique and extraordinary, Sam's much simpler, but lyrics and melody the same, tempo a bit more metronomic on Sam's recording. I doubt very much that Paul ever heard this recording, but I would say it's the earliest recording of the song I have come across, and it was not unknown for all those years, just needed Paul's genius to transform it into a work of art.