Fields of Athenry clearly retains some tribal significance, whether you call it a rebel song or not. Only a year or two back I read of a Glasgow Celtic supporter who was killed by a Rangers fan in a fight on match day. It was reported that the fight started when the Celtic supporter was singing F o A aggressively at the Rangers fan.

What a bizarre image, and a sad indictment of the human race. :0(

As for singing it upbeat, fair enough, but I draw the line at prefixing it with "A wop bop a lula, a bop bam boom!" And any more reference to free birds will necessitate a 12 minute 4 bar repeat guitar solo...

Sung in moderation, like many songs, F o A is lovely. It's when a song becomes 'meaningful' that it can lose its meaning, if you see what I mean. The same could be said of Streets of London, that one about purple heather, with " Will ye go, laddie go" in it, and many others.

The Wild Rover is no better or worse than a thousand other fairly trivial folk songs. Somehow, it has gained acceptance in the non folk world (i.e. among the folk!) and has become the ultimate corny song in the ghetto of folk song enthusiasts.

Finally, Right up your... what? Oooooh, Matron. ;0)   Best laugh I've found in a forum for ages. :0D