I'm new to this so keep an open mind. Funny that R. Frost should pop up - he read at JFK's inauguration. Twisting through the thread I was struck by something that Bobby Kennedy said in a speech (to paraphrase) - when one travels over the land and waters that make up this world one is touched not by that which divides us, but by that which could (should?) unite us. The vast plains of our continents, and even the oceans and rivers that become our boundaries, could be the basis of our unification, our growth, our children's future. As much as I love much of T. Makem's work his crowning glory would be a new verse for "Four Green Fields" that could celebrate a lasting peace for a long troubled land. I hope he lives to write it. Maybe its the american in me but I can't stand the euphemism "the troubles". Stupidity, bigotry, anything but "troubles".