Garryowen

Garryowen, "Owen's garden," was a green on the edge of Limerick where people drank, played games and courted. By the late 18th century it was known for gangs of well off young men who smashed street lamps, beat the watchmen and wrung the necks of geese, and a drinking song about them went to this tune. It was printed around 1785 and in James Aird's collection of 1787 as "Auld Bessy."

Irish units in the American army brought it with them. New York's 69th Infantry took it as their regimental march in 1851, and George Custer's 7th Cavalry adopted it as well, which spread it among American fiddlers.