[Erm, you mean what Arthur McBride said to the recruiting sergeant wasn't political?

Says Arthur, I wouldn't be proud of your clothes
You've only the lend of them as I suppose
And you dare not change them one night or you know
If you do you'll be flogged in the morning.]

Fair point, but I did stress that I was only talking about the English tradition, that's an Irish song, isn't it?

[Or what the woman being left behind said when the captain called all hands:

What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangers?

was purely self-seeking?

Sounds like quite vociferous political protest to me.]

Self-seeking? Did I use that phrase? I just said that the songs often speak from a personal point of view. The girl is saying "What makes YOU go abroad...when you could be safe at home" which isn't the same as from "Why should ANYONE have to go", a sentiment which tends to be found in songs like And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

My point was that I felt there'd been a transition from personal laments about the awfulness of war to protests about its futility, a challenge of "why the hell should ANY sod have to die for politicians?". Did the latter grow more prevalent after the 1914-18 war, I wonder?