The Irish song I’ll Tell Me Ma has become well known in folk music circles across the world.

It is such a popular song that cities all over the Ireland and even some in England and Scotland claim it as their own. It can evoke a lot of civic pride among folk music communities.

Most versions refer to girl at the centre of the song as the Belle of Belfast City, but this may just be because the ‘belle of Belfast’ has a nice ring to it. Singers from Dublin insist it should be Belle of Dublin City. Galway also stakes a claim.

The Serbian folk group the Orthodox Celts even sing Belle of Belgrade City – but that perhaps is going too far.

Such civic pride is understandable but in a way it is missing the point. Folk songs by their very nature, especially ones as good as I’ll Tell Me Ma, move from city to city and get modified along the way to suit local needs.

A hundred years later, it is impossible to say where it originally came from and everywhere can stake a claim.

The book, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Wales by Alice B Gomme published in 1984, shows there were versions of a similar song throughout the UK in the 19th century, although it usually went under the name of The Wind.

Again, the name of the town tended to change to suit the location in question, but there was also a version in which the belle came from the Golden City, which also has a good ring to it and nicely dodges the question of origin.

Gomme’s book was primarily concerned with children’s games. In some areas, the game that accompanied The Wind, or I’ll Tell Me Ma, involved children standing in a circle while they sang the song.

At the start of the game there would be a girl in the centre of the circle. When the chorus got to the line asking about who is being courted, the girl gives the name of one of the boys standing in the circle.

The boy then moves into the centre of the circle and must in turn name a girl when the question comes round in the next chorus.

I'll Tell Me Ma been recorded in all sorts of styles and New York singer Tara O’Grady has even done a jazz version. And yes, in that version the words are changed to Belle of New York City. It seems the battle over the song continues.