Yes, you're quite right that they only said "reputed". A mistake on my part there. Their other assertion is, however, presented as fact; and neither they nor Dixon provide any evidence for that; nor do they cite their source. If we are all going to be accurate, I should point out that Geoff Wallis doesn't suggest that the incident occurred in "Thomastown, Clare", which he goes on to say doesn't exist anyway (I don't know Clare, so I have no idea if that is true); just that some allusion to the location as given in the song might have been appropriate. Personally, I don't think it important; localisation (whether to real or generic places) is commonplace (though admittedly not that often with this song, which tends to stick mostly to Tamworth), and in any case nobody has ever, so far as I know, suggested that this is a song of Irish origin. That particular point made by the reviewer would seem to be no more than irrelevant hair-splitting.

Doubtless much of the review was of the same sort (I really don't want to have to read it all again), though it also contained many legitimate criticisms. I don't know any of the people involved in the original fracas (whatever "BemusedPunter" may think; I'm not sure what he or she meant by that reference earlier to prose style), beyond having exchanged the occasional email with Rod Stradling and Fred McCormick on unrelated subjects; nor have I seen the discussions that took place on the IRTRAD list, to which I don't subscribe, or participated -until this thread- in any discussion relating to the cd.

The whole thing seems to be an unedifying hornets' nest into which I have no desire to look any further. Perhaps we can now return to The Golden Glove.