I once read that Cork was a centre for broadside ballad production at a time when copyright laws were a problem in England, and Cork produced what you might call 'pirate' broadsides for export - to the colonies I think - because the copyright laws did not apply there, the laws being different in Cork. But I cannot now find the source or remember the date. It stuck in my mind because of the suggested Unfortunate Lad connection.

Can anyone help about this?

NB This thread seems to have drifted so far that this post won't do much more damage on the relevance front.