A setting of the air can be found in O'Neill's (Number 309; page 54).

There is a reference to the air/song in an Anglo-Irish officer's first-hand account of life among The Connaught Rangers (who, on the following day, were to rush into a brutal breach in the walls of Badajoz near the Portugal borders) during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, as follows:

"The band of my corps, the 88th, all Irish, played several airs which exclusively belong to their country, and it is impossible to describe the effect it had upon us all; such an air as "Savourneen Deelish" is sufficient, at any time, to inspire a feeling of melancholy, but on an occasion like the present it acted powerfully on the feelings of the men: they thought of their distant homes, of their friends, and of bygone days. It was Easter Sunday, and the contrast which their present position presented to what to what it would have been in their native land afforded ample food for the occupation of their minds..."