"The Irish Rover" is an Irish folk song about a magnificent though improbable sailing ship that reaches an unfortunate end. It has been recorded by numerous artists, some of whom have made changes to the lyrics over time. The song describes a gigantic ship with "twenty-seven masts", a colourful crew and varied types of cargo in enormous amounts. The verses grow successively more extravagant about the wonders of the great ship. The seven-year voyage comes to a disastrous end when the ship sinks. The narrator becomes the only survivor, "the last of the Irish Rover", leaving no one else alive to contradict the tale.
History
According to the 1966 publication Walton's New Treasury of Irish Songs and Ballads 2, the song is attributed to songwriter/arranger J. M. Crofts.
Cargo
The song details a cargo of the fictional ship which betrays the story to be heavily embellished. The lyrics vary from rendition to rendition, but typically note that the cargo of the Irish Rover included -
Bricks
Bales of old billy goats' tails
Buckets of stones
Blind horses' hides
Packets of bones
Hogs
Dogs
Whores
Barrels of porter
Bags of the best Sligo rags
Characters
The song does not explicitly mention how many sailors were on board when they set sail, but the following characters are mentioned along with a notable attribute:
Mick McCann - from the banks of the Bann, was the skipper
The Captain's dog
The singer - the last sailor living of the Irish Rover
Charts
Chart
Peak position
Cultural impact
"The Irish Rover" is one of the most popular Irish-Gaelic Scottish country dances and is set to the music of the song.
The Irish Rovers, created in 1963, were named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover" by their mother in Ballymena, N. Ireland. They first recorded the song on their 1966 debut album, The First of the Irish Rovers.
Slugger O'Toole - a character referred to in "The Irish Rover" has been adopted as the name of a major political website in Northern Ireland.
In issue 26 of DC/Vertigo series Preacher, when Cassidy describes his drinking buddies in New York City, the names are all taken from the Irish Rover.
Recordings
"The Irish Rover" has been recorded many times. Versions are listed below by notable artists in chronological order.
