Ahh, Kat, my gentle Guardian Angel. What would I do without you? Thanks yet once again.

The name of the song was "Only Our Rivers Run Free". I wrote it in about half an hour when I was a callow lad of 18-years old or so. That was back in 1965, so I will let you do your own mental arithmetic.

The strange thing was that the song was written at a time long before the first of the Civil Rights marches in the North of Ireland. Then when the whole place went to hell in a handbasket, the political climate changed.

Christy Moore recorded the song with a group called "Planxty" in 1971. Because of the changed political atmosphere, the song took on a life of its' own. It was soon regarded as an anthem of the dispossessed and has, by now, gone into the tradition - the greatest compliment any song can get.

The point I'm trying to make - badly - is that you can write something that grows "just like Topsy". People saw something in the song; it meant something to them that was not particularly in my mind when I first coined it.

It triggered off my songwriting life and I followed it up with a number of others which gained some minor international acclaim. The Tinkerman's Daughter - naked theft from the poetry of Sigerson Clifford - and a few others.

If it happened to me it can happen to anybody so it is important to keep writing.

Time to blush modestly and sign off.

Mickey