"I know that the family of Kevin Barry were terribly affronted by what they called the public house song"
Not the experience in Ireland as we've come across it.
Barry is treated with reverence, the song is sung widely and with respect by good, bad and indifferent singers and Barry is regarded as a national hero, along with Sean Treacy and Dan Breen, James Connolly, Woolfe Tone, Cathal Brugh... and all the other heroes - there is even a 'Kevin Barry House' in central Dublin.
The fact that it is sung in pubs, along with 'James Connolly', 'Green Fields of France', Willie McBride - and all the other songs acknowledging heroes and heroism, is an indication of the popularity of both the song and its subject.
Jim Carroll