Pauline L, the link is found in Noreen's posting. The thread discusses the issue of a web-page which had this song which seemed to be very similar to that we know and love as the Fields of Athenry. Slight changes to names, and things, but it claimed to be written in the 1880s. John Moulden checked out a number of the "facts" of that page, but was unable to confirm any one of them. It was declared to be a hoax when the page was "lost" after someone tried to contact the person who had put up the web-page. That's the simple story.