Getting back to the tonality, Nora Ní Ghriallais has a version of Lord Gregory in a different tune than the one that's usually sung - and I presume that it is an alternative, also sung in Connmara.

Incidentally, Pádraic Colum, in his and Molly Colum's book Our Friend James Joyce (or possibly Molly in her memoirs) has a story of Joyce singing Oh the Brown and the Yellow Ale in a most affecting way, and of this being a song that he sung often.