I've just found my thread again! I'll get the hang of this Mudcat eventually.

Thanks everyone for your comments on the song. Malcolm Douglas has correctly twigged that I found "Smokie" when I looked for the wrong spelling of the author's name. I somehow didn't think that the writer of such a poignant Irish song seemed to fit with "...living next door to Alice", etc..., but stranger things have happened.

I heard this song a few times in Glasgow pub sessions over the last two years, and was entranced by it. I guessed the title (wrongly). It shows how strange ideas can develop when songs are passed on from being heard in sessions and folk clubs.

Mickey, I have found that this song always gets a good response, and I intend (with your permission) to go on singing it, using the correct title and crediting the correct author of course!

Thanks again everyone.