Irish Folklore Question ... see inside for details?

The highwayman could have been a rapparee - Irish irregular soldiers and bandits of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In regard to the history of the song, Lomax states, "The folk of seventeenth century Britain liked and admired their local highwaymen; and in Ireland (or Scotland) where the gentlemen of the roads robbed English landlords, they were regarded as national patriots.

"Whiskey in the Jar" is the tale of a highwayman who, after robbing a military or government official, is betrayed by a woman named Jenny or Molly; whether she is his wife or sweetheart is not made clear. Various versions of the song take place in Kerry, Kilmagenny, Cork, Gilgarra Mountain, Sligo Town, and other locales throughout Ireland. The narrator of the song is not usually named. The only consistently named figures are the sweetheart who betrays the narrator, "Jenny"/"Molly", and the Anglo-Irish official, "Captain Farrell"/"Colonel Pepper", neither of which aid in the dating of the song. In some versions, the narrator remains imprisoned for his crime, in other versions, the narrator escapes from prison and flees the town of his imprisonment to pursue his love of 'the good life.'

Like most Irish drinking songs, "Whiskey in the Jar" has no single standard set of lyrics. This variation is largely due to regional differences in dialect as well as the variable stages of inebriation in which it is sung.

From: http://www.answers.com/topic/whiskey-in-the-jar

You can read other lyrics to this song at the site.

Hope this helps!

tis himself, that great and wondrous highwayman taking back all the tax money from that no good scoundrel captain farrel and spending it all on the devils own daughter jenny