Just lately on Radio One RTE I heard a programme called "Rattlebag" presented by Miles Dungan. It was one of a series about the origins of "Irish" songs and , among others such as "My Irish Molly-O" (often attributed to the Flanagan Bros who were Irishmen performing in New York of the twenties) "I'll take you home again Kathleen" was also revealed to have been written by a non-Irish person. It seems, if my memory holds true) that the name in the title was changed to Kathleen by the publishers to fit in with an "Irish song vogue" of the time and originally was a more common Eastern European name. Perhaps you can look up the archive for the programme in RTE's web site (www.rte.ie) Beach