Been a while since I was last on here as I've been snowed under with exams and everything.

I'm performing at an Irish music event put on by my local village, mainly just doing a few reels and my own version of the "standard" traditional songs.

One of those I'd like to do is Whisky in the Jar and I've often wondered about the chorus which is usually some variant of:

"Musha ring durum a' da,
Whack fol the daddy 'o,
Whack fol the daddy 'o,
There's whiskey in the jar".

As far as I know this complete nonsense but I've often wondered if it was originally in Irish but got chronically misheard over the yearst? I've trawled the internet but found nothing. Do any of you know of a possible set of original lyrics for the chorus or possibly postulate what they might be? If you have any ideas I'd be keen to hear them!

The only idea I have is that "musha" might have been "mhuise", indeed? Or even "maise", mass?

(Message edited by Sam2000 on May 09, 2011)

I seems:

Musha is muise.

The rest except for "There's whiskey in the jar" are non-sense words.

It's related to a 17th century song called Patrick Flemming. It's an English language song, so I don't see any reason that there is hidden Irish in the non-sense.

Does "muise" come from "má + is + ea" - "más ea" = if so? Just a thought.

The OED says:

The Irish phrase más ea if that is so (earlier maiseadh) has also been suggested as the origin of muise, but does not fit as well phonologically.

Who knows? It may even involve the possessive pronoun mo.