While the situation in Ireland is getting worse instead of better, Rory refuses to cloud the real issues of the day with trite protest songs. Protest songs are good if they make a segment of the people who are totally ignorant of a bad situation aware of the fact that there are problems. But the day of the protest song, as such, I think, has passed. The Vietnamese situation has been musically exploited beyond belief, as have many other areas of conflict. You'll find George Harrison playing to raise funds for the unfortunate souls of Bangla Desh, but you won't find anyone playing to raise funds for Ireland.
Some causes are more popular than others.
But basically, protest songs and things like that have lost their impact because they've been overdone. Besides, protest songs are only newspaper headlines anyway. And I'd hate to think that anyone who liked my musical material could get the same satisfaction from reading the morning papers. That, I think, would really be a drag.