I have read an interesting comment by Fintan O'Toole on the song and how it was used in "The Lord of Dance". O'Toole was outraged by what he called the "unprecedented philistinism" in the music used in Lord of the Dance. The worst involved the use of this song, which he calls a great, almost sacred work of art dealing with a community's grief over this mass drowning. Michael Flatleys' show reduced the song to gibberish. O'Toole's comments are in an collection of articles in The Ex-Isle of Erin". This article deals with the politics of Riverdance.