"Whiskey on a Sunday" is a song written by Glyn Hughes (1932–1972), which became popular during the second British folk revival. It is sometimes called "The Ballad of Seth Davy".
The song laments the death in 1902 of a performer, Seth Davy, who sang and performed with a set of "dancing dolls" outside a public house in Liverpool. Seth Davy was in fact a Jamaican who performed outside the Bevington Bush Hotel around the turn of the century. It was located just north of Liverpool City Centre.[1]
The original song contains lyrics and idiom specific to Liverpool. In an Irish version, the first-line mention of Bevington Bush appears as Beggars Bush, referring to a location in Dublin.[2]
The Irish folk singer Danny Doyle covered the song in 1968 and it remained at No. 1 in the Irish charts for 10 weeks.
It has also been recorded by Irish folk group The Dubliners, Rolf Harris, The Irish Rovers, The Weavers and Max Boyce, among others.