I'm intrigued by the Fields of Athenry having a special meaning in Norway. Tell us more John Wood?

I don't think there are songs that should be parody free zones. But there are some lousy parodies, and if the parodies lousy it's even worse when it's a parody of a great song.

But I think people like the Kippers and Les Barker have demonstrated that parodying a song you love doesn't take anything away from it.If you don't love a song you haven't the right to parody it in my view.

One song you'd think should be parody-free is No Man's Land (or The Green Fields of France, or Willie McBride, whatever you call it - Digital Tradition follows Eric Bogle's preference for No Man's Land). But I heard a parody of that at the fleadsh in Clonmel a couple of years back which was both very funny, and had a serious pointy to it, about the way people sing the song without thinking what it means. (And I've just seen that it's on Digital tradition as No Man's Land (3)

- by Crawford Howard and Fintan Valaly)

Kevin