As I stated in my previous post, Dicky never did receive any form of royalties for his song. But it must be pointed out that he wouldn't have expected any as they were friends, and also he would not have been aware of such things either. As far as I was told by Dicky, Brendan hated the fact that grandad never received either credit or royalties for his song, hence the paying of Dicky's sons boat fare to England in 1955 by Brendan. Dicky's son, my uncle Mickser, my mam Tesso and my uncle Gerard are all that remain of Dicky's 9 kids. I must also point out that grandad was not in fact a tramp, but was a highly articulate man with a very dry sense of humour, which could cut you to the quick without degrading you. He was also a very tough man who had literally fight his way through life in the Liberties. "But such was the way of the world when you ran with rats" as he used to say. Re: the spelling of the song and it's pronunciation...the word Auld should be said with a Dublin accent and would have been pronounced Owld, and not Old or Ould as some have suggested here. The upshot of any debate is that Dicky was poor, but never regretted a single moment of his life. he died in 1975 and is buried In Southern Cemetery, Manchester.