The impression I got was that Brendan Behan paid Dick Shannon for the rights to the song after the first night of the production of the play "The Quare Fellow". He actually bought the rights to the song. The only way he could ensure all royalties went to Dick Shannon would be to get Dick to copyright it. Many people have written songs but the eventual owner is he who copyrights it. Is there copyright on "The Aul Triangle? nad if so, to whom.