Several points come to mind: >I am awed and grateful to the contributors to this thread for being so willing to share their astute observations as well as their typing and research time. I think this is my all-time favorite site on the web. >Referece is made in several versions to the capturing soldiers gathering about our "bold deciever" in "numbers odd and even." Is this an Irish idiom for "lots" or "bunches"? >I have sung this song for 35 years (and still don't know where Sligo town is...hence it is not in my version where "I bid a fond farewell to that tight-fisted town..Musharingum duram da." etc. >I have always played the song as a driving, forceful account by using a hard fingerpicking style or Mother Maybell Carter's flatpicking style (Carter family picking) which absolutely sings on a good 12-string guitar. I guess I don't see the song as a lilting ballad as the P P & M version seems to...and the depicted singer of the song is a two-fisted highwayman...not one characteristically given to lilting ballads. Peter Stanley (Bojangles)

Klysn,bt udrtand that something the equivalnt of a state funeral was held at the time of his death underscoring the enormous affaction and regard the Irish feel for their best singers.