I learned this song from the singing of My Old Boss, Debby McClatchy. It's on her "With the Red Clay Ramblers" album, at 43:26 (and note how gorgeous she was on the album cover). I think this is the usual version, sung by lots of Irish singers.
But today I heard a rendition by the Black Brothers at a house concert, and I really liked it. Shay Black slowed the song down a lot, and I think he made it more meaningful.
I think sentimentality will make me always prefer the way Debby McClatchy did it, but it was interesting to see what the Black Brothers did with it.
And the Black Brothers put on one hell of a wonderful concert (but so does Debby). And Shay Black said all sorts of wonderful things about Mudcat.
-Joe-