"Roddy McCorley" was a favorite song of The Reivers and is a very stirring tune. I've not tried to research it, and can only relate what we heard about it from a variety of sources. We understood that Roddy was involved in the '98 Rising, that he was a protestant and that many of that persuasion were involved, especially in Antrim, in that Rising. I always understood that "Sean South of Garryowen" was sung to the tune of "Roddy McCorley" and not the other way around. Does anyone know for sure which came first? We also were informed that Roddy was not hanged from a gallows, as some in this thread suggest, but that the method used was to fasten a rope to the bridge, secure it around his neck and push him off. In the song he's a very heroic figure, and the information in the thread to the contrary, while interesting and probably true, sort of spoils the effect. Another of many "heroes" who turn out to have had feet of clay?

Reiver 2