will ye come to my anecdotes o'er the broad majestic shannon

It was the dulcet Autumn of 1978.
Mr Locks looked at the packed classroom of twelve year old boys.
He was frustrated because me and the other hoodlums were showing some reluctance to learn the traditional Irish songs which he wished to teach us.
Red haired, ribald, Mick Finnerty had put up his hand and demanded with cheeky good humour: "Sir, why don't you teach us something from Top Of The Pops?"
Mr Locks was too weary to hit him.
After forty years of a thankless task teaching peasants (thankless except for the excessive remuneration Irish governments lavish on the teaching profession) Mr Locks had reached the end of his tether.
"I'll tell you one thing," he announced bitterly to the smirking classroom. "In fifty years time people will still be singing Will You Come To The Bower, long after Abba are forgotten."
He said the word Abba with marvellous contempt.
The memory of his prediction has come back to me today thirty four years later as Abba's Dancing Queen blares from the radio.
They sing Swedishly and with undiminished elan.
There are no signs they will ever stop.
Mr Locks had shown remarkable discernment all those years ago.
On that elegiacally beautiful Autumn afternoon at the dawn of time, he had somehow managed to predict imminent oblivion for the one pop group on Top Of The Pops that probably would indeed be still remembered in fifty or even a hundred years time.
What were the odds of that.
Any other group you care to name from the charts that particular week, is already long gone.
And now a new thought strikes me gentle readers...
What if Abba were to record a cover version of Will You Come To The Bower!
That would be a sure fire smash hit.
An immortal folk song meets an immortal pop group.
Bjorn would have a field day.
Oh sweet noble and enlightened friends of the internet, I see by the old writing on the wall  that it's time for Heelers to return to the music business.