"Now what would you be wanting to go writing that for?" the lovely lady in the Tipperary Town tourist office chided me the next day when I asked her to confirm the story. The most she would concede was that "it is alleged" the word referred to Soho.
But even a cursory internet search favours that explanation over the one that said the soldiers were longing for a lovely lass pining in the south of Ireland.
What is not disputed is that the song was first performed on January 31, 1912, in Stalybridge, near Manchester, by a music hall performer called Jack Judge, whose parents were Irish (though from Co. Mayo, a long, long way from Tipperary). There is debate about where it was penned, though the consensus is that it was in response to a five-shilling pub bet that Judge couldn't write a song in a day.
Certainly, it was not written by an Irishman in Ireland - or even about Ireland: the chorus' penultimate line "Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" make the London reference more persuasive.
Tipperary itself happily trades on the song's fame, and it's worth a visit, if only to tease the woman in the tourist office.
But the heart of the county is Cashel, famous for the spectacular Rock of Cashel, which looms mightily on the edge of town. The traditional seat of the kings of Munster (the southwestern quarter of the island) before the Norman invasion, it is now the site of a remarkably well-preserved cathedral and monastery, most of which was built in the 12th century.
On a clear day, which the locals tell me is a rare occurrence, though it was brilliant the entire June week I was there, you can see five counties from the top of the Rock.
Cashel has a strong New Zealand connection too. A former Archbishop of the diocese, Thomas William Croke, was, for a scant three years, the Archbishop of Auckland.
The Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand notes that in his time here, he "restored firm leadership to a diocese left in disarray by his predecessor, Bishop Pompallier".
He rebuilt diocesan finances by getting his hands on the surplus income from the gold-rich parishes of the Coromandel, and instituting "a more rigorous system for the Sunday collection at St Patrick's Cathedral".
But if Croke is less remembered by non-Catholics in Auckland than the celebrated Pompallier, he is immortalised in Ireland.
He was one of three founding patrons of the Gaelic Athletic Association, which was established in Thurles, near Cashel, in 1884, to "foster a spirit of earnest nationality" by restoring the indigenous sporting codes - hurling and Gaelic football - that had been repressed by the English.
Croke Park in Dublin, the spiritual home of Gaelic games, is named for him.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Emirates flies daily from Auckland to Dublin via its hub in Dubai.
Further information: See tipperarytown.ie.
The writer visited Ireland with the assistance of Emirates and Visit Ireland.
