I really have no idea why there are not more Child ballads in the Irish song tradition. David Hammond, mentioned back there for his recording of The Bonny Earl of Moray, once pointed out to me that many of the Scots who came here during the Plantation and later came from around the border area which is the scene of so many of those ballads. Many of the names, he remarked, are still common – Trimble, Hume, Hamilton and so on. Is it possible that John Hume is related to "The Laird o' Hume has a-hunting gane …"?

Possibly I have heard versions of Child ballads and not recognized them as such. It was some time before it dawned on me that the song, "There was an old woman who lived in the wood, weile, weile, wallia …" could be considered a version of Child 20.