Here's the answer to my question about "Nora." My copy of Soodlums falsely attributes this to G. W. Johnston. But Prof's Traditional Irish Music Pages has the following history:

There our story might have ended, if it wasn't for John Casey. John Casey was born March 30th 1880 in a rather squalid part of Dublin. Having embraced the Irish republican cause he changed his name to Sean O'Casey and settled down to become a struggling playwright. In the 1920's the Abbey Theatre in Dublin accepted a number of his plays including "The Plough and the Stars" (1926) set around the 1916 Easter uprising. In it the central character sings "verses following to the air of 'When you and I were young Maggie'" and so the song "Nora" was born.

I know it is not uncommon for songs and melodies to be "borrowed", indeed we have featured some in past pages. I also know it not uncommon for a song to become "Irish" (classic example "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" which we featured a while back) as indeed "Nora" did, being included in such notable Irish song publications as Soodlums and Ossian. What I do find rather pleasing is that Maggie ultimately seems to have prevailed . As I mentioned in the introduction to this feature, I have come across numerous recordings where, although the artist used O'Casey's lyrics, the name Nora has been changed back to Maggie.

Cheers, S. in Seattle