I have been listening to and have been interested in folk music for the over the past fifty years and I can tell all of you that The Fields of Athenry was unheard of until the early eighties. It was never classed as a folk song by any of the local folk singers, but if you want to sing it do so, as songs go its a dam sight better than most.Oh, and yes Athenry is a dam sight better than most towns, I stayed in it overnight many moons ago, and there was no mention of the song. Slan Aed Mhacha.