LOL. I just started checking dates to see what order these posts belong in and found that the latest ones are 10 months old! Is anyone still here?

I started out this afternoon looking for the English translation to an Irish song sung by one of the singers on the PBS special "Celtic Woman." It reminded me of a song I learned in grade school, but may have mixed up the words in my mind with the later recording by Peter, Paul and Mary that a would have heard just a couple of years later. Which is why there are probably so many different versions of the song around.

As to the "nonsense" words, they are probably mostly garbled versions of Irish words unfamiliar to non-Irish speakers. It's like a prolonged game of "telephone."