guest TJ, about battlefield promotions and rank, WWII pilots from the "right background" were pilot officers the "wrong sort" were seargent pilots. Anyway, this has been discussed in a way before, it's about empathy, can anyone sing a song about a life of begging when they have never been a beggar themselves, so if, by and large, republicans are richer maybe they don't feel inclined to associate with the views expressed in a lot of the songs in the folk genre, like exploitation, anti war, anti establishment, poaching, tresspassing and romanticising the fellons.