Lets meet the Highwayman who inspired "Whiskey in the Jar"! Warning, this one deals in graphic violence. England had Dick Turpin. Dublin had Patrick Fleming, he was born to potato farmers in Athlone, one of nine children packed into a single room. At thirteen he went into service with the Countess of Kildare. He was sacked for insolence. He landed next with the Earl of Antrim's household, where he found the family priest asleep in a compromising position and rounded up the staff for a laugh. The earl did not find it funny. Fleming was discharged in disgrace, but not before helping himself to 200 pounds of his lordship's money and goods. A small fortune which was gone in no time. He fell in with a gang of thieves in Dublin and spent six years robbing more houses than the city had ever seen robbed before. He was twice nearly hanged for it. When Dublin got too hot, he ran for the Bog of Allen and turned highwayman full time. From there he moved his operation to the Barnesmore Gap in Donegal, setting himself up as a one-man toll booth for the mountain pass. Rank meant nothing to him. In a single morning he robbed 125 people, including the Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop of Raphoe, who had the misfortune of sharing a coach. He robbed the Archbishop of Tuam separately for 1,000 pounds. He kidnapped Lady Baltimore and her four-year-old son, telling her that if the ransom didn't arrive within a day he'd "cut the young puppy's throat and make a pie of him." When Sir Donagh O'Brien refused to cooperate, Fleming cut off his nose, lips, and ears. Eventually he was caught robbing a nobleman in Munster and thrown into Cork jail. He escaped up the chimney. Free again, he spent the following years murdering his way across Munster, five men, two women, and a boy of fourteen among them. His luck ran out when a landlord sheltering him and fourteen of his gang sold him out for a reward. The landlord's wife soaked their firearms in water first, so the guns wouldn't fire. All fifteen were dragged to Dublin, tried, and sentenced to hang. Fleming went to the gallows on 24 April 1650. His body was left hanging in chains on the road out of the city, a warning to the next fella with ideas. Songs remembered him kindly. "Whiskey in the Jar," Ireland's most exported drinking song, traces back to ballads written about him. The song leaves out the eyeballs and the ears. Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublintime…