Tom, et al,

Very, very interesting additional info on the song and the people. Thanks for all the detail - makes them come alive.

I agree it's not the world's most important thing but I've just been curious how Brendan himself would have opted to pronounce it for the play. That's why I tried to get a copy or at least have someone listen to, that lost tape from the show. I expected it to have a criminal-speak feeling but the book was standard spelling.

As many Irish, he had easy and plausible access to several accents. He could legitimately speak Street, Prison, "Standard" or "Educated" Irish. The only record I have of him uses a distinctly Irish but what I take to be middle-class Dublin accent. (I don't claim expertise.) In the play, the singer is a prisoner so might use Prison accent. In the book (mine, anyway) the spelling is nearly all standard English. A bit of Poetics (o'er) and droppin' a few final G's.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Brendon (or his publisher) opted to spell formally for print but sing more comfortably or more in character in the play. (And sing it some other way if he ever made a commercial recording.)

I never heard of Dicky Shannon before but I think I'd much like to have had a pint with him. I _will_ credit him when I sing the song but then I think I may have discredit Brendon, Dominic and Kathleen. Or the people who reported/wrote about them. Who knows?

Is there any written evidence Brendon credited him?

As to copyright, I think I can give something amusing about the US, if not Ireland. As I understand, in the US, copyright goes to the first person to "publish" the piece and the date it was published. Registration makes it easier to claim and find publicly but anyone can register anything. Eventually it's the court that determines who gets the money.