Kim, to search out the allegorical songs you might consider joining the Irish Trad music list, or the Ballad list, at least long enough to see if anyone can help you. I don't have the subscription info but as with all of these e-mail lists you can get the information by doing a Liszt search. I suspect a posting in rec.music.celtic might get you some responses.

You tend to find knowledgable people on the e-mail lists, because they are the only ones who take the subject seriously enough to tolerate the volume of e-mail received.