I put "O'Rafferty's pig" into a search engine, and the only thin it came up with was a site about Gordon Lightfoot (whohas abit mkre street cred than Val Doonican I suppose) - it came up with this.

http://www.mmlc.nwu.edu/~mfifer/lightfoot/faqs/faq-7a.html

It's not very helpful, but somewhere in there is a report on a concert years ago where he sang "The night O'Rafferty's pig ran away" along with Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre" and Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown". An interesting range of content. Would have done for my Craggy Island concert.

I've been thinking about that too - I can see Val Dooinican as a role model for Father Ted, Shane for Fathr Dougal and Joseph Locke for Father Jack. I suppose to round it out you'd have Sinead O'Connor for Mrs Doyle.<