The Fields of Athenry, is only one of many history based songs which have sectarian under and overtones. There is Kevin Barry, which I as a Protestant love, but cannot sing it in Protestant company, and will not sing it in Catholic company, as it is taken by them to be sectarian, when it is to me historic. I can't help but admire the small band of Irish patriots who tried against the odds to liberate their country, but cannot understand the people who still continue to re-live history in their everyday life. The English/British suppression of Ireland goes back at least as many years as the generations whose descendants cringe at the sound of Dixie.
We all have to put these hatreds behind us.
Giok