'I heard a beautiful Irish ballad sung recently in a thick Brummy accent, killed the song stone dead!.

The thing is Desi, there are green passport carrying Irishmen and women all over the UK, probably in America as well for all I know. But certainly every big city in England has Irish people who speak in an English regional accent - Brummies, Cockneys, loads in Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds - all the big Lancashire towns, Derby, certainly Nottingham. Just about everywhere I've ever played, I've met 'em.

Are these people disbarred from singing their own folksongs cos they don't sound like Val Doonican or The Dubliners?