I was interested to see the strong feelings about songs with a particular locale NOT being changed to another place. Just ain't right? I can see the point with Sammy's Bar, because the story is so thoroughly steeped in geography and language of the place.

But I can think of a number of songs in the Irish/English/Scottish/American spectrum that have "migrated" from place to place when the story is so universal, and many times sung by those who've migrated as well. The back-and-forth of many performers between these places seems to make changing place names part of the show - throw in a local reference in a place it'll fit conveniently.

Ed Miller, a Scotsman living in Austin took "Rivers of Texas" and interspersed some verses about Scottish river-powered mills and created "Rivers and Rievers" (and Rivers of Texas has other variants with river names from other states - Illinois, New York, etc) He's als0 turned some Irish songs into Scottish versions.

"Roseville Fair" by Bill Staines got transplanted to somewhere in Ireland more than once.

Jean Ritchie's "One I Love" was touted as a "very old traditional Irish song sung by an American" with a revolting animation on youtube, though some of the words were similar to older songs; Universal theme,floating verses? Still doesn't make Jean's version Irish.

Si Kahn's "Aragon Mill" has had considerable coverage as "Belfast Mill" and possibly other titles/place names, such that it's been recorded as "Irish trad" which it ain't.

I do like it when performers actually KNOW what the original version is of songs written within living memory, and stray from it only for very good reasons. It's weird, but youtube and other online forms of access have managed to create a new kind of aural tradition that lacks authenticity or reference or accuracy. I appreciate that there are folks who look out for the interests of songwriters of their acquaintance - policing the ignorant. Some songwriters merely get amused when their songs go viral within their lifetime, thought to be traditional.

Joanne in Cleveland