When I was a kid, we used to have Father Gallagher over for dinner every St. Patrick’s Day. From him, I learned, to the tune of “Turkey in the Straw”:
There’s the Rotterdam Dutch
And the Potterdam Dutch
And the Amsterdam Dutch
And the Goddamned Dutch.
Hooray for the Irish!
They ain’t very much
But they’re a damned sight better
Then the Goddamned Dutch.
(And as a side note, my mom always favored Bushmills, but when she learned Bushmills was the Orange whiskey, she switched to Jamesons.)
Don’t worry about it. 
I ignore anything that looks like an innocent slip with my name. I think I’m the only Otaku or Otaki on the board.
“Bottle Of Smoke”, The Pogues.
Is the folk song “She Moved Through The Fair” Scottish, English or Irish?
Any origin, it’s the most beautiful song to ever emerge from the United Kingdom.
In my humble opinion.
Can I nominate anything sung by Maura O’Connell, with special reference to the album Wandering Home? (Cues up “Irish Blues”…)
The Parting Glass. The Clancy Bros and T. Makem have a lovely version but there are any number. I hope to have it sung at my funeral – as my moldering corpse is rolled out.
Oh, all the money that e’er I spent
I spent it in good company,
And all the friends that e’er I had
Are sorry for to see me go,
And all the girls that e’re I had
Would wish me one more day to stay.
And so it’s fall’n
Unto to my lot
That I must rise
And you should not,
I’ll quietly rise and softly go.
Good night and joy be with you all.
Or something like that, more or less. I don’t think my widow wold stand for it, however.
It’s hard to say one song – there are rebel songs, and drinking songs, and sad love songs and songs of exile and immigration, and songs that are just fun (Finnigan’s Wake), and bad marriage songs, and spinster’s hard fate songs, and Lord alone knows what else. Some bring a lump to the throat, some bring a smile and some a stronger set to the jaw.
Castles are sacked in war,
Chieftains are scattered far,
Love is a fix’d star,
Eileen Aroo.
Nobody’s mentioned my top picks: Are Ye Right There Michael (about the perils of taking the train from Ennis to Kilkee) and Slattery’s Mounted Fut (about a singularly inept fighting[?] force).
In general I prefer songs in which the Irish make fun of themselves to maudlin tripe such as “Mother Macree” (gak). And lest you doubt my credentials, let’s just say that there’s a very famous cow in my pedigree — probably not a direct relation, but the name’s what matters.
I think She Moved Through the Fair is Irish. However if the wikipedia explanation of its origins are accurate then it highlights the problem with traditional songs and claiming origin for them. It seems to be Irish in origin, was published in England, but has been played by a variety of musicians from Ireland, Britain and elsewhere. It can be tricky to attribute certain songs with unknown precise origins and the air or lyrics or part thereof having travelled across Ireland and Britain. Certain airs have had lyrics attached to them in various countries, so Scotland’s Loch Lomond becomes Red is The Rose in Ireland but is also sung here (in Ireland) as Loch Lomond. There are also foreign songs that have become parts of the traditional repertoire such as The Lakes of Pontchartrain and latterly songs played by Irish-American bands that are claimed as Irish but wouldn’t be thought of so here, such as What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor and the like. Anyway there’s my rant over. I hope this made some sense.
My two favorites are:
Caidé Sin Do’n Té Sin by Clannad
Casadh An tSugain by The Bothy Band
… and I don’t have the slightest idea what either song is about. 
Tim Finnegan’s Wake
Wow, it’s hard to pick one, but that was the first that came to mind when I thought of “my favorite.”
More good ones:
Fields of Athenry
Back Home In Derry
Elf-Knight
Star of the County Down
Rocky Road to Dublin
Foggy Dew
Courtin’ in the Kitchen
Brennan on the Moor
Dirty Old Town
Bold O’Donahue
Kilkelly
Dicey Riley
I’m the first to say Give Ireland back To The Irish?
irish smilies :rolleyes: 
Carrickfergus and Ride On, and Come out ye Black & Tans, all of which I shall be singing at my friend’s Paddy’s Day party tomorrow, after we watch Ireland win the Six Nations.
I remember the words to a song I learned when I was a kid, but I don’t think I ever knew the title.
*In Dublin’s fair city
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first laid my eyes on sweet Molly Malone.
She wheeled her wheelbarrow
Through streets broad and narrow,
Singin’ “Cockels and mussels, alive, alive O.”*
I still remember the melody and the last verse.
Another Irish song that I performed once a number of years ago is MacNamara’s Band.
*Oh, the drums go bang and the cymbals clang
And the horns they blaze away.
McCarthy plays the old bazoon, while I the pipes do play.
Hennesy Tennnesy tootles the flute
And the music is something grand.
A credit to Old Ireland
Is MacNamara’s band!*
I can say there’s a wee bit o’ the Irish in me, but it needs fortifyin’ with a little Bushmill’s from time to time. 
The entire cast recording of The Beautiful Game. Tomorrow, I will listen to the Hungarian version for the first time, which of course makes absolutely no sense. 
A SUBLIME ETERNAL TUNE,
TO THE RHYTHMS OF THE MOON.
THESE ANCIENT CHORDS WERE FORMED IN THE BEGINNING,
AND THEY SING TO ME “MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR WRONG”.
THESE ARE SONGS WE ALWAYS SANG,
NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THEY BEGAN.
The Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and
Tessie by Dropkick Murphys (but that’s not really Irish)
I really like that one.
I once heard a gentlemen in Denver, CO on St. Patrick’s Day walking down the street with his lady break into “Molly Malone” in a beautiful tenor voice. People just stopped and listened. It was wonderful. I think that one is now my favorite.
Mary Mack’s Mother and Rattlin Bog are both great sing alongs. I don’t really know the names of many Irish songs, but these are two that are sung regularly at our local pub.
It’s called Roisin Dubh (Black Rose) A Rock Legend from the album Black Rose. Thin Lizzy has a ton of good songs with a good Irish feel to them.
It doesn’t get more powerful than Luke Kelly singing On Raglan Road. He was a mate of my Da’s.
Seriously chaps, if you haven’t heard Luke’s version then click on that link. One of the great voices of our time. RIP Luke.