I've just spoken on the 'phone to a friend of mine, Jenny, who is of Irish descent and speaks Irish. She tells me that the name Seosamh MacCathmhaoil - the writer of the words of 'My Lagan Love' - is a Gaelicisation of the English name Joseph Campbell (the proper name of the writer) rather than Joseph Campbell being an Anglicisation of an Irish name. Apparently, there was a fashion among the intelligentsia in the 19th century (including the Bloomsbury Set) for Irish-ising, Scottish-ising and Gaelic-ising everything, to the point of giving pseudo-Gaelic spellings to their names and writing trad. songs from English into Gaelic! So, Martin, this backs up what you tell me above. Ah well, I still think it's a lovely song!
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