feel that this resolute cynicism, and doubt as to the sincerity of others' motives, do you little credit, Sean.

Sorry, Michael, just after nigh on 40 years of being bullied by the weep-along-or-else sentiments of this song (and others) it's hard not to be. I got in Folk because I wanted listen to Traditional Songs, not to be preached at by politicos, lefties & peaceniks, or be put in a position of having to quietly retire least I was found wanting by the more vocal members of folk's revisionist ernestocrasy.      

For the record, at heart I am an Anarchist who longs for a world of loving peace in which scientific reality & cultural diversity are the cause of human unity, and all is green, pleasant, a-political, pastoral and secular with the Advancement of the Individual being our primary cause. To that end I address my craft, but not to the extent that I don't recognise such dreams are, alas, some way off yet. God knoweth, they were even further off 100 years ago in that past that was well and truly another country.

I'll go there presently, sit quietly among the gravestones and listen to those songs I mentioned earlier on my Nokia C-3 : Peter Bellamy singing his setting of Kipling's My Boy Jack and Dick Gaughan singing Hamish Henderson's The 51st (Highland) Division's Farewell to Sicily, respectful to be part of that future the likes of Pte. William McBride fought and died for; respectful that his death was not in vain.