To cut and paste from other earlier threads, regarding the origin of Paul Brady's version as coming from Carrie Grover in Maine:

Subject: RE: Paul Brady \ Arthur McBride
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 10-Apr-99 - 01:51 PM

I think you all ought to know that Paul Brady got this song from a friend's copy of Carrie Grover's A Heritage of Songs, originally published through the efforts of George Farnsworth and Ann Griggs at the Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. Most people don't realize that this version of the song came from a traditional singer in Maine. Carrie Grover had songs from both her mother and her father and from her neighbors up there in the western part of the state, including, by the way, "The Braes of Balquither" and "Lass Among the Heather," both derived from the Tannahill poem that gave us "Wild Mountain Thyme." All in all, it's an astounding collection. Mrs. Grover also recorded some of her songs for what is now the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress.

Caroline and I were singing at Gould Academy some years ago and were given a copy of the original publication by a member of the staff there. It seems they had a few left-over copies in a closet and he thought we "might find it interesting!" We discovered that neither the Library of Congress nor Kenny Goldstein had the book, and arranged to have them get copies. Kenny later republished it through his Folklore Associates press. You might be able to find a copy of that edition.

I'll post the Grover text later (gotta get a program ready now for a gig we're doing tomorrow), but I can't give you whatever changes Brady may have made when he sang it, as I don't have his recording of it.
Sandy

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 14-Sep-00 - 05:18 PM

Sandy Paton and I alluded to the Maine / Grover origin above but was not aware that he found the book in Lisa Null's library. Lisa has a great library! I had a ramble through it in the late '70s when I was doing the bibliography for "A Bonnie Bunch of Roses."

Paul Brady thought a great deal of Lisa. Then, again, we all do.

All the best,
Dan Milner

The missing piece of information is that Paul Brady (or one of his friends) got the song from Lisa Null's Carrie Grover book while recording at Green Linnet. Lisa Null was one of the founders of Green Linnet (along with Patrick Sky), and ran it out of her house in New Canaan, Connecticut in those days.

--Charlie Baum