In his introduction to Songs of the Irish, Donal O'Sullivan writes that Thugamar féin an samhradh linn,
''being associated with pastoral May Day ceremonies, is doubtless of considerable antiquity. Though the earliest version of the tune does not appear till 1745, reliable tradition says that the song was sung as a welcome to the Duke of Ormonde when he landed as Lord Lieutenant after the Restoration (July, 1662). Versions of the words have survived in the Irish-speaking districts until the present day, and one of the last of the learned poets David Ó Bruadair (c 1625-1697), alludes to the song twice in one of his poems. This poet contemptuously refers to assonantal verse as sráid-éigse ('street poetry'), and writing some time after 1692 he bitterly complains that 'nothing but vulgar poetry is now understood'.''