Having exorcised the song successfully I must relate a little known fact about the people who gave the song its title.
When we worked in Kent in the early Seventies in The Wife of Bath Restaurant every couple of weeks we would notice in the car park a series of sleek sports cars carring a family for dinner.
These were , in the eccentric British way , all number plated with the family initials as in MCA 1, MCA 2 etc. which is apparently amazingly cool because you have to spend enormous money to buy them especially.

The clan was led by a Sir Robert Mc Alpine (I think) and they were perfectly well behaved and never tried to exploit Síle or I – who would have been the only Irish people working there.
It took a little while before I connected the people up to the song and I was never quite sure whether they were to be loved or despised for having employed the Irish Navvies during the hungry fifties and sixties.

It is a bit tenuous I know but I always thought we could claim , in our own way, to have been McAlpine’s Fusiliers too.