As an Irish singer who performs this song, I can confirm that indeed it's not an Irish song at all, but as most people point out it stems from Liverpool where there was a real street entertainer named Seth Davel. Many somgs get 'adopted' by my country folk and Seth Davely has the sound of a good Irish song, bit like Dirty Old Town who many Irish and English believe to be Irish, in fact the 'dirty old town' in question refers to the home town of the writer Ewan Mc'coll, Salford near Manchester. It's a cedit to Glyn Hughes writing skills that many including myself originally thought it to be a much older traditional song, I'll be singing Seth Davey tonight 14/12/08 as it happens
Desi, the artist formerly known as, who?