Gary TThank you ... you have answered why YOU choose to sing certain songs. You say "In my experience (as a "non-Irish person singing this song to a [largely] non-Irish audience") it's more of an academic interest that's being expressed. "
No problem with people who have a real academic interest in the trappings of the troubles. You may be aware of the Linen Hall Library, a highly respected academic institution, one of whose specialities is collecting, cataloguing and making available to academic researchers material on the Northern Ireland "troubles".
The bit below is reprinted from their website www.linenhall.com
"Sometime in 1968, Jimmy Vitty, then Librarian of the Linen Hall Library, was handed a civil rights leaflet in a Belfast city centre bar. He kept it. Since then the Library has sought to collect all printed material relating to the "troubles". In the intervening three decades, we have amassed over a quarter of a million items.
The Northern Ireland Political Collection is a unique resource. No other institution in a localised conflict has systematically collected material from all sides. Much less has it been done in the field, and often literally across the barricades.
The Collection documents the activities and views of all parties to the conflict, from paramilitaries to government. It covers publications by organisations on the margins of the direct political process as well as by those chiefly concerned with social issues. A large proportion of these items is held by the NIPC alone.
The literature ranges from the most ephemeral—stickers, leaflets, posters and Christmas cards—to more substantial collections of books, pamphlets, manifestos, photographs and audio-visual items. The enormous range of periodicals includes both single issues and complete runs of enduring journals of record. This material is complemented by a complete press cuttings service spanning the entire period of the "troubles".