The man born on Burns’ Night, 1915, changed his name from plain Jimmie Miller to underline his Scottishness
G O INto any Irish pub from Aberdeen to Adelaide, Clydebank to Chicago or Dundee to Dunedin and it won’t be long before the haunting strains of ‘Dirty Old Town’ waft out from the jukebox or sound system.
The archetypal Irish ballad, you might think, and a hugely popular one at that thanks to the efforts over the years of groups like the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners and the Pogues.