Irish Ballads - I smell a rat

I joined in with the locals from Sallins on Saturday as they sang ' The Boys of Sallins' at the end of the night. A typical Irish ballad about killing Englishmen and saving the land. A good night was had by all and a visit to the chipper next door topped it off.

Then when I was in a pub in Edenderry they had a song called 'The Boys of Edenderry' with the same words although the last line was 'And we marched as victors back to Edenderry' rather than Sallins. Hmm. I said nothing though. They looked rather a rough lot and had funny accents.

However when 'The Boys of Tullamore' kicked off the next night and it was the same song and air I started to smell a rat. As it happens it was only my hiking socks but you know what I mean. I put it to a local historian who went by the name of Houlihane. He said that those bastards from Edenderry and Sallins had robbed their ballad but I shouldn't be surprised given that they were all a shower of feckers etc etc. With that half the pub headed off with pikes and hooks and the like in the direction of Edenderry. You may have read about it in the papers.

Despite the fracas i wasn't sorry that I raised the issue. After all, the only thing that separates us from the animals is our sense of dignity (and perhaps the fact that we floss a bit more, excepting certain chimps).