Billy,
Not too far a thread drift and as MtheGM said, fascinating.
Your first part is reminiscent of a song we found here in West Clare.
During the War of Independence it was of the the practice of non-participants who were nevertheless supporters of the cause of self government to 'do their bit' by making a nuisiance of themselves with acts of minor protest. One of the favourites was to pile a bundle of parafin-soaked rags up against the doors of the local (unoccupied) barracks (police stations) and set them alight, causing only slight damage, but diverting the attention of the RIC and the 'Tans' from the real war.
Shortly after this had happened in the next village from here, Quilty, a group of young men, (3 locals and a 'returned Yank') got together at the road junction (the cross) and began to toss around verses on the incident, concentrating on how the local people reacted to such goings on.
Nobody can remember who the four lads were, but the song did the rounds up to Independance in 1922 when it disappeared, only to turn up again in Deptford in the early 1980s from a Quilty man who had left Ireland in 1948 and never returned.
It's a lovely little comic song which is also a part of Irish history almost completely forgotten, until we put it back into circulation on the Round The Hills of Clare cds. Since then we've been inundated with information from locals telling of this and similar incidents.
Which underlines, for me anyway, why it is necessary to recognise that these aren't 'just learned from print' but records of local information.
Jim Carroll
PS Don't know if your interest extends to theatre performance but if it does - do you know anything about the travelling theatres 'fit-ups' which were popular here and, I think, in Scotland up to the middle of the 20th century. Would appreciate any information on them.