Was Captain Farrell a historical figure? (Whiskey in the Jar)

[racinchikki]

Continuing my tendency to read way too much into things:

I was thinking about highwaymen, and listening to Metallica’s version of Whiskey In The Jar, and it occurred to me that I’d heard some Irish folksingers performing it once, so maybe it really is an Irish folk song. Did some quick and dirty research with Google and found dozens of variants. There are several differences between the variants, breaking down into two basic variants with a ton of sub-variants, with various small details differing between them. For instance, the girl’s name is sometimes Jenny and sometimes Molly. But other things are nearly constant. For instance, in almost all of them, the antagonist (the guy the narrating highwayman stole from, and who eventually brings the highwayman down) is named Captain Farrell. (Sure, there are variants in which he’s Colonel Farrell or even Captain Pepper, but 9 times out of 10 it’s Captain Farrell.)

Was there a real Captain Farrell who was placed into the song’s story, or is it just that someone made up a name to rhyme with “shot him with both barrels” and it stuck?

(A Google search on his name comes up with the lyrics to the songs some more, so I’m thinking the answer is (b), but you never know.)

[TheLoadedDog]

Interesting.

Putting a few different search criteria into Google came up with lots of, well nuthin’ much, but this link seems to confirm your suspicions that there isn’t a lot to it. The lyrics are very changeable.

[Ice_Wolf]

I found on the Kitchen Musician Website an interesting piece on Whiskey in The Jar.

Interchangeability of the lyrics has been commen with this tune, depending on version, for example:

He meets with his victim (Captain Farrell, Colonel Farrell, Captain Everet, Colonel Pepper, or Sir Frederick Pottinger).

There is a tenuous link with the 1728 The Beggar’s Opera, and tales of highwaymen abroad in the 1720s.

Any connection between the protagonist of “Whiskey in the Jar” and his Molly or sportin’ Jenny with Captain MacHeath and Polly Peachem of The Beggar’s Opera seems quite tenous. There are several songs about highwaymen and betrayal in both the 18th and 19th centuries, including Gilderoy, MacPherson’s Lament and Newlyn Town. In John Gay’s London in the late 1720s, there were several active highwaymen as well as recently-captured or recently-hanged highwaymen available for inspiration. Some of the highwaymen still at large may have attended The Beggar’s Opera in 1728.

So – Captain Farrell could have been based on any character, or perhaps a collection of remembered characters, as was the highwayman.

[Duke_of_Rat]

Not much to ad, but Thin Lizzy did a rendition of Whiskey in a Jar . Thin Lizzy, or at least lead singer Phil Lynott, was Irish. You might have heard it.

[racinchikki]

Thin Lizzy’s version is what Metallica covered. And in a fit of curiosity late last night I actually did small research on different variants of the song. I knew that sometimes such songs were based on real people, and I wondered if that were the case here. Thanks for helping me figure out that the answer is “nope, probably not.”

[Gary_T]

Go to the Mudcat Cafe (Folk & Blues music site) - http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm - and do a search or post a question. You may get more info or possibly a definitve answer.

[racinchikki]

Thanks for the link, Gary T.