To add a bit on the strength of the local tradition: when I was editing - nearly 40 years ago now - the selection of the Sam Henry Collection that was published in Belfast by Blackstaff Press (Songs of the People Part One), I noted the number of local and very local songs in the collection as a whole as being around 40%. This is feasible where a collection is built up, week by week, in the pages of a newspaper but it impressed me at the time. It is over time that an inventory was made. A place to start, in Ireland, would be the Schools Collection of the NFC - which is referred to above. My look at the papers that refer to Clonmany Parish (inishowen, Donegal) turns up quite a few such songs.
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