Doesn't Brendan O'Dowda repeat the first verse of "Gortnamona" at the end? While Percy French certainly does play on some "Stage-Oirish" expectations (as in the Widow Cafferty being the best dancer; or, in the song itself, she "bate the company at the Handlin' of the Fut"), I'm not persuaded that his humour actually depends on the kind of patronising, negative stereotyping one might expect; is there really anything like that in, say, "McBreen's Heifer"? Isn't it just taking the countryman's practicality with regard to livestock and romance to extremes? And so with many of the other songs with which I'm familiar; "The darlin girl from Clare" needn't be from anywhere in Ireland at all for the humour to work, the Pride of Connemara could set sail from any community, and Abdul Abulbul Ameer or Count Ivan Skivar never set foot, or boot, or sandal, anywhere near Howth, Cobh or DunLaoghaire. On the other hand, a line like "When we get what we want, we're as quiet as can be/Where the Mountains of Mourne &c" is a perfect example of a dry, understated Irish wit. If anything, his songs can be unduly sentimental ("Father Cornelius Callaghan"), but - as has been hinted above - in the right hands, or mouth, something like "An Irish Mother" or even "Cuttin' the Corn in Creeslough" can surely draw tears. After all, for many of the people hearing them at the time they were composed, this was reality.