Dixon-Bell is the earliest source that I am aware of for the suggestion that the song derived from an "Elizabethan" incident; no evidence was given. Naturally I checked it before posting. Carroll and MacKenzie present their assertion as fact, while acknowledging no source of any kind for it. That is laziness by anybody's standards.

The question of marriage customs is another one entirely; I made no comment on that, as I had thought it common knowledge; though Carroll and MacKenzie perhaps ought to have cited sources. I can see that "Guest,Bemusedpunter" may have assumed that I was implying that Dixon-Bell contained comments on it. It does not. That misunderstanding would be my fault for not being more specific.

I do agree that the exchanges in re the review of Around the Hills of Clare became unnecessarily nasty. Much of the original criticism was deserved (though certainly not all of it) but Jim and Pat don't take criticism well in any case. On the whole, it is best to take such things with as good a grace as possible, while of course pointing out where such criticism is inaccurate or undeserved.