Well, I went straight to the source and asked Jim McCloskey, who replied:

Billy:

Well, I'm partly very chuffed and partly very pissed off that these rumours are around. Jesus Christ, I mean: `fur-lined sheepskin jacket', cheating at Subbuteo, watching `University Challenge'. Not me.

No, both of these rumours are completely untrue. But I can see what little grain of sand might have provoked each of the pearls to form.

[1] Feargal Sharkey (lead singer for the Undertones) is my cousin. But the song `My Perfect Cousin' was written by Damian O'Neill (lead guitar) and Michael Bradley (bass), and it's about Mickey's cousin (not Feargal's or Damian's). I knew this person, and his name really is Kevin, but beyond that I am not willing to go. It's a great song though. I have never owned a fur-lined sheepskin jacket, nor have I ever cheated at Subbuteo.

[2] No, I was never the drummer for the Hothouse Flowers. But I was the bass player in another Irish band that married traditional music and rock (for want of a better word) music. That band made just one recording, which was re-issued on CD a couple of years ago, and I wrote the sleeve notes for the CD re-issue. That band was important for the evolution of recent Irish music, if I can say this without sounding boastful, not so much because of what we did at the time (which was sort of soppy and amateurish), but because it was the training ground for people who later went on to form the two most important and innovative bands in Irish music of the past 20 years, namely the Bothy Band and Altan. These people are my closest friends. I'm very proud of my (very small) part in what they achieved, and I'm still in close touch with all of them (which mostly these days means going on the piss with them when they come round here to gig, or when I go back home to Ireland).

Cheers. Thanks for alerting me to this,

Jim