I'd imagine the "belle of Belfast city" migrating to Dublin was because the line was used in a skipping rhyme all over the country,

All over more than one country, and it could have come from any of them. I think the popular association with Belfast comes from some Irish revival band of the 60s (the Clancys?) who adopted that location for the version in their repertoire - it doesn't go back very far as a "standard". The Gorgie/Dalry kids around 1950 that Ritchie recorded had never heard of it that way.


Probably because they had a racist anti-English ideology to promote.
Bit of a stretch there, I'd say. What race would one be to be anti-English?

Canadian? German? English but with an Irish surname? Racism is about who you hate, not who you are.

You don't have to spend long around the diapora-Irish music scene to find the sort of attitude that wants to deny the English the ability to create anything at all. Which is why I have nothing to do with it any more, despite the fact that I love Irish music and have stronger family ties to it than most. The bigotry involved in it (as displayed by some posters in this thread) makes me sick.