I don't come from a long line of traditional singers but, like lots of others, I received songs such as Sammy's Bar and Dirty Old Town by osmosis in childhood. Songs that were recorded and made popular by Irish artists during the 'ballad boom' in Ireland are the ones that were engraved in my psyche during my formative years. Those are the songs that were sung by my aunts and uncles at house parties when I was a child. That is my tradition. Some of those songs happen to be English but they are my songs too. I didn't steal them and nobody told me lies. They cannot be removed from my consciousness and I am not less entitled to them because I am not English.

Lots of non-Irish folk songs have been integrated into Irish popular culture purely by accident. When Liam Clancy passed away there was a tribute paid to him during a televised music awards show (similar to the Brit awards). Video clips of talking heads paying tribute were interspersed with snippets of Liam performing. When a brief clip of Liam singing the Wild Rover appeared, the largely teenage audience burst into song and continued to sing over the talking heads after the clip ended. It was a beautiful moment that would bring a tear to a glass eye. You would never see that at the Brits.