I like Shane's songs. They seem to me, very poetic.

I remember years ago Karl Dallas wondering in print in the Melody Maker, why the Irish were so keen to embrace the national stereotypes in folksong; at the very time the American black people were turning their backs on blues songs, with their crude racial stereotypes.

Either way, you could pick a hole in Bottle of Smoke or Fairytale of New York - every line of them - for just those faults. Surely you accept it, in its totality, or not at all.