Keith A: I have already accepted that many Irishmen fought and died in the two World Wars. I am also aware of the background to numbers of Irishmen feeling it was acceptable to enlist in 1914 ("Twas England bade our Wild Geese go, that small nations might be free). But there is plenty of evidence of nationalist frowning upon the practice. More to the point, of course, is that Eric Bogle's song was taken into the Irish charts by the Fureys during the Troubles where it stayed for something like six months and reached number one.
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