Can we have another go at this one, please?
Hughes (1909) in "Irish Country Songs" gives a version and says "In the locality where I obtained this fragment, Reynardine is known as the name of a faery which changes into the shape of a fox."

P.W. Joyce in "Ancient Irish Music" (1912) gives one verse only of a version under the title "The Mountains High" , with the placename Pomeroy (Tyrone) but also refers to a version with Fermoy in Cork (I think June Tabor used that name).

Petrie (1855) gives tune only as Reynardine - "from a ballad singer at Rathmines Nov. 1852". Coincidentally, Rathmines, an inner suburb of Dublin, is where I spent the first four years of my life.

I have seen a copy of a ballad sheet (Cathnach) of "Mountains High" which is clearly the same song, with no specific place identified and with the name rendered as Randal Rine! No idea of the date - but I imagine its earlier than 1855.

Sigerson, who was born in Tyrone, appears to have adapted the song for the patriotic "Mountains of Pomeroy".

So. Can anyone push it further back or point out European connections?

Regards