I take your point, Mike, but it doesn't change my opinion. Obviously singing in a language that you speak is the ideal, but I know that is not always possible. I don't speak Irish either, but have learned this song from people who do, on tape and in person, and have taken the trouble to learn what it means and sing it that way.

The phonetic rendering of the words is also available here and elsewhere- why is learning the phonetic sounds of the Irish words by rote any more difficult than learning the phonetic sounds of the 'gibberish'?

Noreen