I am a very old man and have listened to and sung a great many ballads in my life. Unfortunately over the past decade circumstances have made a prisoner of me but one night about a year ago I escaped those circumstances and got - I say 'got' because it wasn't as simple as 'went' - to a real live session and there I heard for the first time the Tinkerman's Daughter. It was love at first cite - if I may abuse that verb for effect. The song? Yes! I truly fell in love with it but there was more to it than that. I created me a rough-hewn, vibrant red head who was greatly ill-done by and I nurtured her lovingly in my consciousness.

These days I never get to Listowel; those bloody circumstances! I'm sure if I could I would look for that poor, desolate old man and he and I could sit in a corner of that pub in Listowel and ruminate on our respective feelings for the tinkerman's daughter. As for the lady herself, I know if I met her I would leave myself penurious spending the fruits of my labours on potions promising me youthful reinvigoration!

My politics incline me to sympathy with The Travelling People but twice errant members of that fraternity have buggered up my driveway and charged me plenty for doing so. It's hard to blame them when you realise how we, the settled folk, treat them. Anyway, now the red-headed Ann has created the conditions in which I could well be swindled for a third time!

Mickey Mc Connell for Pope!