Chris B, stick around!

I have a reputation for being something of a curmudgeon on the subject of the Irish adoption of songs and tunes. There could be an element of sour grapes there somewhere. I once did a gig in an Irish folk club and was told after my set, "Sure, 'tis a pity you're not Irish, I could get you loads of gigs if you were!" I nearly changed my name to Declan O'Flaherty on the spot, but, damn it, I'm English!!

I digress (as usual). The automatic assumption that, once a song or tune has been sung or played by an Irish artist, it falls into the public domain under "Irish Trad" goes back at least 40 years to the Dubliners and "Wild Rover". That poor, unassuming, singalong song was collected in Norfolk, England, from a Mr Larner, if I remember right. Much though I admire Christy Moore, Planxty et al, they have been among the worst perpetrators. Si Kahn's "Aragon Mill" got the treatment, as well as those listed by Mj, and Moore's "Irish Ballad" version of "Lord Baker" was so dreadful that it did at least get me to research a decent version of "Lord Bateman" on which it was (loosely) based.

Perhaps the whole thing comes back to attribution. I always try to make a point of nominating the source of any song I sing, unless it is sufficiently well-known not to need it. If everyone did that, a lot of misunderstandings and misattributions would be avoided.

Micca Patterson does the best parody of "No Man's Land" that I've heard, and I think that his is the one in DT.

Dismounting from hobby horse and heading off to work!

Alan