Source: John McFadden in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland¹

A tune with a similar first part appears in the late 19th century collection of Alex Sutherland of Co. Leitrim but with a second part unrelated to that of McFadden’s version given here. Not found in any of the older collections in DeGrae’s Bibliography².
Recorded by the Siamsa Gaedheal Ceilidhe Band in 1931 as The High Road to Galway³. O’Neill’s account of McFadden from Irish Minstrels and Musicians can be found here.

1. Francis O’Neill, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Melodies. Chicago, Lyon & Healy, 1903, #1304, p.245.
2. Paul DeGrae, Sources of tunes in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and Dance Music of Ireland, 2017 (rev.2021). https://www.irishtune.info/public/oneill-sources.htm (accessed 23/1/23)
3. Siamsa Gaedheal Ceilidhe Band, “Irish Dance Music”. Topic TSCD 602. (1995 reissue of 1931 original). Listen here.