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Whisky in the Arts

Whiskey in the Jar: The Irish Ballad and Its Recordings

A fiddle and highwayman’s belongings by candlelight
A fiddle and highwayman’s belongings by candlelight

In the back of a London taxi, Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell recalled, the melody line for the band’s version of “Whiskey in the Jar” came to him. By then, the Irish ballad’s highwayman had been robbing an officer and suffering his lover’s betrayal through generations of printed sheets and collected songs. Neither Thin Lizzy nor Metallica wrote it.[1][8][9]

The story behind “Whiskey in the Jar”

A highwayman takes a military officer’s money, brings it home to his lover and discovers that she is his undoing. The officer is often Captain Farrell; the lover betrays the robber, who ends up in prison. Versions usually place the action around the mountains of Cork and Kerry. Colm Ó Lochlainn’s published text names Kerry.[1][6][8]

The plot changes as the song travels. In older versions discussed by the Financial Times, the lover sabotages the highwayman’s pistols. In Thin Lizzy’s recording, the narrator shoots the captain. These are different turns in the story, not merely different accompaniments to the same words.[8]

Think of “Whiskey in the Jar” as a song family, rather than a single definitive recording. It is number 533 in the Roud Folk Song Index and is also catalogued as Laws L13A. Its other titles include “Kilgary Mountain”, “Gilgarra Mountain”, “Captain Devin”, “The Sporting Hero”, “Darling Sporting Jenny” and “McCollister”.[5][6][7]

Those names are useful clues when searching catalogues and older recordings. Search only for “Whiskey in the Jar” and material filed under a mountain, a captain or a sporting hero can slip past. For the broader musical setting, see whisky in songs and folk music.

What the printed record reveals

Printed song sheets put the ballad firmly in the nineteenth century, long before its rock recordings. Ben Traverse identifies a London printing by Hodges, dated between 1846 and 1854, as Bodleian Johnson Ballads 612A. He also identifies a British “Sporting Hero” broadside from about 1850 to 1855, catalogued as Harding B 11 (980).[6]

Claim: The earliest printing of the song is established. Verdict: Disputed. The Financial Times describes a Bodleian copy from about 1840 and reports researcher Steve Gardham’s dating of a Madden collection copy to about 1800. Ben Traverse cites the Hodges copy dated 1846 to 1854. The earliest printing, like the date of composition, remains unsettled.[6][8]

Other surviving sheets show the song’s reach. Mainly Norfolk records a version printed by the Poet’s Box in Glasgow in 1871. Across the Atlantic, the New York State Library holds an undated De Marsan broadside titled “There’s Whiskey in the Jar”. It also holds the printer’s 1860s “We’ll Fight for Uncle Sam”, set to the ballad’s tune.[4][5]

These American sheets preserve two distinct things: the ballad itself and another song borrowing its tune. Neither identifies a composer. The claim that “Whiskey in the Jar” was popular with American colonists and inspired the Massachusetts variant “McCollister” remains a legend, with no primary colonial text identified in the supplied record.[1][4][6][8]

Claim: Patrick Fleming inspired the song. Verdict: Disputed. The highwayman was executed in Dublin in 1650. The Financial Times presents him as a possible inspiration, and Ben Traverse traces the song’s roots to his execution. Wikipedia, however, treats the Fleming ballad as a separate, similar song. The connection remains unestablished.[1][6][8]

Claim: John Gay wrote The Beggar’s Opera after hearing the song. Verdict: Legend. Alan Lomax suggested the connection, but the Financial Times calls it speculation. There is no established account in the supplied record of Gay hearing the song.[1][8]

From family memory to folk recording

Colm Ó Lochlainn traced the song’s place in his family to his mother. She learned it in Limerick around 1870, he said, from a Cork man named Buckley. Ó Lochlainn later printed the song in Irish Street Ballads in 1939.[5][6]

The collected record reaches across the Atlantic, too. Laws records an American recovery in West Virginia in 1908. Lena Bourne Fish sang it as “Gilgarrah Mountain” to Anne and Frank Warner in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The date of Fish’s performance is disputed: Mainly Norfolk gives 1941, while Wikipedia gives 1940.[1][5]

Accounts also differ over a Séamus Ennis recording. Mainly Norfolk lists a BBC recording made on 21 September 1949 and issued in 1955; Wikipedia lists a 1951 Dublin recording by Alan Lomax. The date and place remain unresolved in the supplied record.[1][5]

Ewan MacColl recorded the song on Bad Lads and Hard Cases in 1957. The Highwaymen’s Encore followed in 1962. During the 1960s, the Dubliners, Peter, Paul and Mary and the Seekers also recorded it, giving listeners several routes into the ballad.[5][8][11]

Apple Music dates the Dubliners’ recording on More of the Hard Stuff to 1 June 1967. It is a clearly identified recording to set beside Thin Lizzy’s later arrangement. That catalogue date belongs to the album track, rather than standing for the history of every Dubliners release.[10]

Thin Lizzy: a rehearsal joke becomes a single

According to guitarist Eric Bell’s retrospective account, Thin Lizzy’s version began when Phil Lynott sang the song as a joke during a rehearsal break. Bell and drummer Brian Downey joined in. Manager Ted Carroll heard them and encouraged them to record it.[9]

The Decca session was meant to produce a possible B side. Decca wanted an A side instead. Bell recalled drawing on pipes he had heard on a Chieftains recording for the guitar introduction. He said the melody line came to him in a London taxi; later, at home, he taped it using Lynott’s recorder.[8][9]

Claim: A rehearsal joke led to Thin Lizzy’s single. Verdict: Documented. Bell’s retrospective account describes the rehearsal and Carroll’s encouragement; the cited accounts also describe Decca’s choice of A side. The chart record confirms the UK result, while the rehearsal conversation rests on Bell’s account.[2][8][9]

Released in November 1972, the single reached number one in Ireland and stayed in the Irish charts for 17 weeks. Its UK chart entry came on 20 January 1973: it spent 12 weeks there and peaked at number 6, under catalogue number Decca F13355. The distinction matters: an Irish number one, not a UK number one.[2][8][9]

Metallica and the return to Dublin

Metallica came to the ballad through Thin Lizzy. Their version followed Thin Lizzy’s arrangement and appeared on the 1998 covers album Garage, Inc.. It was another interpretation of the traditional song, with a specific rock recording as its starting point.[1][8]

The single entered the UK chart on 27 February 1999 and peaked at number 29. On the separate Official Rock and Metal Singles Chart, it reached number one. The recording also won Metallica Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards.[3][12]

On 5 July 1999, the connection became a shared performance. Metallica invited Bell on stage at the Point Depot in Dublin to play the song: the guitarist whose introduction helped shape Thin Lizzy’s arrangement joined the band that had drawn its cover from that version.[8][9]

Other recordings kept different strands of the song alive. The Dubliners recorded it again with the Pogues in 1990, while Jerry Garcia made an acoustic version with David Grisman for Shady Grove. This is a story of versions existing alongside one another, not simply one recording displacing the last.[1][8]

Three recordings to compare

Start with the Dubliners’ More of the Hard Stuff recording, dated 1 June 1967 by Apple Music, as a point of comparison from the song’s 1960s folk circulation. Then listen to Thin Lizzy’s November 1972 single for two distinct features: Bell’s guitar introduction and the narrator shooting the captain. The latter is a change in the action, set against older versions in which the lover sabotages the highwayman’s pistols. Finally, hear how Metallica draws on Thin Lizzy’s arrangement on Garage, Inc. from 1998.[8][9][10]

Keep two questions in mind as you listen. What happens in the story? And which earlier performance informs the arrangement? Separating the narrative from the musical treatment makes the relationship between the traditional ballad, Thin Lizzy and Metallica much easier to follow.[8]

Common mistakes

Calling Thin Lizzy the songwriters: their arrangement is an important recording, but nineteenth century printed copies came first. The Roud catalogue places it within the wider record of a traditional song.[6][7][8]

Calling Metallica’s recording an original: it is a cover based on Thin Lizzy’s version. The Grammy recognises Metallica’s performance, not authorship of the underlying ballad.[3][8]

Treating an early printing as the composition date: a dated sheet shows that the song existed by then. The competing dates reported for surviving copies neither identify its author nor settle when it was first made.[6][8]

Where to go next

Sources

  1. Wikipedia. Whiskey in the Jar. Checked November 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_in_the_Jar
  2. Official Charts Company. Whisky in the Jar: Thin Lizzy. Checked November 2026. https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/thin-lizzy-whisky-in-the-jar/
  3. Recording Academy. Best Hard Rock Performance 2000 Winners & Nominees. Checked November 2026. https://www.grammy.com/awards/categories/best-hard-rock-performance/2000/
  4. New York State Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections. Broadside Ballads. Checked November 2026. https://nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/broadsides
  5. Mainly Norfolk. Whiskey in the Jar / Gilgarrah Mountain / Captain Devin. Checked November 2026. https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/whiskeyinthejar.html
  6. Ben Traverse. (There’s) Whiskey in the Jar. Checked November 2026. https://bentraversemusic.com/songs/whiskey-in-the-jar/
  7. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Search results: Roud 533. Checked November 2026. https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:combined/0_50_full/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr:533
  8. Financial Times. Life of a Song: Whiskey in the Jar. Checked November 2026. https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/whiskey-in-the-jar.html
  9. MusicRadar. Eric Bell on the unlikely success story of Thin Lizzy’s version of Whisky in the Jar. Checked November 2026. https://www.musicradar.com/news/whiskey-in-the-jar-eric-bell-thin-lizzy-interview
  10. Apple Music. Whiskey In the Jar, The Dubliners, More of the Hard Stuff. Checked November 2026. https://music.apple.com/gb/song/whiskey-in-the-jar/693592631
  11. Apple Music. Encore, The Highwaymen. Checked November 2026. https://music.apple.com/us/album/encore/821592631
  12. Official Charts Company. Whiskey in the Jar: Metallica. Checked November 2026. https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/metallica-whiskey-in-the-jar/

This desk research article was prepared from the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing catalogue records, retrospective testimony and secondary historical accounts.

Last checked: November 2026