Talk:Taffy was a Welshman

Invasion of Ireland?
Could this poem be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the invasion of Ireland by Cambro-Normans? It alludes to a Welshman named Taffy (Taaffe?) who steals from his house. Are there any historians around who have any thoughts on this? Raphael (talk) 15:05, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Not likely, considering the 600-year gap between that influx (after 1170) and the first record of the rhyme (1780). --Thnidu (talk) 20:24, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Taffy
Being of the North Wales variety, I wouldn't be happy to be called "Taffy". Not because I consider it racial or perjorative, but simply because I would see it as inappropriate, given that the Taff is in South Wales. Is this why "Welsh people would very rarely refer to themselves as "A Taff", whereas, for example, Geordies might use that name for themselves"? Most of Wales is nowhere near the Taff, whereas Geordies are (obviously) from the region they are from — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.142.12.119 (talk) 20:08, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Alternative modern version?
I have a vague recollection, from when I was a child in the 1970s, of an alternative version of the song. In this version the slur against the Welsh is removed and it was sung as "Taffy was a bad man", I've found one good reference for this existing here, which isn't much and it doesn't show the full text of the song.

Here is the weird thing. If I am remembering this right, in this version both Taffy and the song's narrator are both thieves. Instead of Taffy burgling the narrator's house and the narrator visiting Taffy's house to get revenge, in this version they take turns to burgle each-other’s houses (or maybe they both do it at the same time, which is why they never find each-other at home). I assume this was designed to change the song from a slur against the Welsh into one about the futility of theft. I didn't find anything when I tried Googling for this. Does anybody have anything that might back this up? --DanielRigal (talk) 17:58, 10 September 2021 (UTC)