Then there's that heart-wrenching song of exile, The Old Dog Road. And that heroic ballad, Dog Save Ireland Said the Heroes. While on the other side of the argument, there's The Leash my Father wore, and Doggies lie down

And Dirty Old Hound surely counts as Irish enough by now as well. As does A Christmas Hairy Tail of New York.

Have a good St Pat's Mick and the rest of you. I'm just back from a few days in Ireland, and there's no public festivities this year, with the foot and mouth. It's on a war footing, you have to struggle over disinfected mats or foam matting to get into a pub or a church - even if you're carrying a coffin, which was why I was there.

Still there'll be private celebrations, and they are the ones that count. And I'm off the the Lion in Eastwick in Hertfordshire in a couple of hours, to pay my respects.