Irish folk song: Hunt the Hare, and played some funny rigs

Question

I'm making a choral arrangement of the Irish folk song "Rocky Road to Dublin." One variation of the lyrics is here. I've been able to decipher the meaning of most of the words, many of which were unfamiliar, but there are a couple of phrases I haven't figured out.

This is the chorus:

One two three four five,
Hunt the Hare and turn her down the rocky road
And all the way to Dublin, Whack fol lol le rah!

I had assumed this was all nonsense, other than "rocky road, all the way to Dublin," but I noticed that on that particular website "Hare" is capitalized. Is there a reason for that, and is there any meaning here?

Also, in verse 4, when the storyteller is in the hold of a ship, we have:

Down among the pigs, played some funny rigs,
Danced some hearty jigs, the water round me bubbling;

What are rigs? I can't find it now, but I recall once finding a source that listed "prank" as a definition for rig. That's my best guess, but the situation described is still a bit confusing. Can someone shed some light on this?

Answer 1

Hunt the Hare is the title of a traditional Irish jig. That's probably why it is capitalized. Reference: https://thesession.org/tunes/4426

You're right about rig, it's an archaic word for a trick or prank. From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

Run a Rig (To).

To play a trick, to suffer a sportive trick. Thus, John Gilpin, when he set out, “little thought of running such a rig” as he suffered. Florio gives as a meaning of rig, “the tricks of a wanton;” hence frolicsome and deceptive tricks. The rig of a ship means the way it is rigged, hence its appearance; and, as pirates deceive by changing the rig of their vessel, so rig came to mean a trick to deceive, a trick, a frolicsome deception.

Answer 2

methinks ye all are overthinking this way too much and missing the simple context of the whole idea. When you consider the verse as a whole then it is easy to see that the phrase "played some hearty rigs" means the music played on an instrument; namely a guitar!

Then the next line makes complete sense of someone dancing(a jig) to that music. The next day he is hungover, and perhaps seasick from too much frolicking the night before.

Watch the YouTube video of Luke Kelley and the early Dubliners playing the Rocky Road to Dublin. Watching them execute this song with enthusiasm and the unparalleled mastery of lead singer Luke Kelly. They actually re-create the scene as they play and dance around.