Art Thieme: your version of Pontchartrain "will be on a Folk Legacy CD".
Now, that use of the future tense is ambiguous to my ears. Does it mean that if I go out and buy this CD now, it will have Pontchartrain on it? Or does it mean, when the CD comes out, it will have Pntchartrain on it. You may think I am being a bit nitpicking here, but the fact is that I would like a copy of this record, and I want to know if my desire can be fratified right now.
    On the subject of the songs Irishness. OK, in the sense that it had no specially Irish connection before Christy Moore learnt it from Mike Waterson(of Watersons fame): it isnt Irish. On the other hand, since its meteoric rise to an internationally loved and very widely known status can be attributed to Irish performers(Planxty, Brady etc): yes it is Irish. Where a folk song flourishes is surely just as significant as its precise birthplace.