I may not agree with your politics (I infer you favour a united Ireland under the rule of the South), but I think you are very right when you say "This one one of their ways of keeping us connected to our heritage".

Curiously, many here seem to deny that the same argument applies to the English learning or singing traditional Englsh songs.

By the second world war however Southern Ireland was independent, which is why the treason trial of Lord Haw-Haw was a crock of shit.