I'd guessed you had Irish links from your name
The link to the Navvying is interesting in 'Man you Don't Meet' - it's still sung around, but I'd never come across that reference
I kick muyslef for not knowing enough about my own family history (especially now I need an Irish passport, thanks to the subject we never discuss here)
I'm also sorry I didn't follow up my family links to song though I know they existed
My Grandfather was a merchant seaman who sang shanties - his father the same
The latter was a heavy drinker who drowned when he decided to walk into town for a drink - they were moored a mile off New York.
My dad was a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War so the first folk songs I ever learned were in Spanish
Missed opportunities - eh !!
Jim