I've had an e-mail reply from Steve Rothero, which hopefully answers Hera's original query (although it might mean starting another thread on La Golondrina....)

"Yes, I know this song very well - I wrote it in 1979. Jim and Sylvia Barnes heard me singing it at Maidenhead Folk Club and asked me to teach it to them. They recorded it on the Scotch Measure album on Topic.

The missing line is:

Long ago, or so they say, when Queen Liza held the throne

By the way, I sing America the normal way. Sylvia decided to change it to Americay, like in so many Irish emigration songs.

I'd love to hear La Golondrina - who has recorded it?"

Thanks Cluin for supplying the missing link to identify the song writer.