The United States, unlike the European nations who peopled it, is without a specific ethnicity. It is a nation that was populated by a multiplicity of cultures with a Tower of Babel olio of languages. Ergo, American folksongs and folklore are as scattered and diverse as the enormity of her geographic expanse. If we continue to identify ourselves as Irish-Americans, Italian- Americans, African-Americans, Swedes, Cajuns, Poles, Germans and whatever/whereever else, it is only sensible to identify our "borrowed" folksongs as Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc. There are, however, many songs and stories that are uniquely American. Cowboy songs, blues, bluegrass, ragtime, Tex-Mex,gospel,spirituals,Tin Pan Alley, country and western, honkytonk, I could go on and on. Grant unto Caesar, they say. So do I. An Irish folksong is Irish, whether it is sung in Cork, Sydney or Boston. Unless a song undergoes drastic change in a new setting, I'm all for calling it what it was and what it is.