Interesting, Don: I don't recall ever hearing the Corries' arrangement of 'Rose' before. Unusually for folk revival performers, they use the tune as originally written by Sidney Nelson and widely printed in numerous popular song books from the mid-19th well into the 20th century; a little smoothed-out, but in the original 4/4 time and taken at much the pace (fairly brisk) of the original.

The rather later (1987, I think?) Dubliners arrangement was sung by Sean Cannon, who I recall singing it long before he joined them. His phrasing and (particularly) the form of the melody as he sings it suggests that he was familiar with the Copper Family version, though the rhythm is rather smoothed out as compared to theirs (he will certainly have heard Nic Jones singing it, and that too may have had some influence). Most modern 'revival' recordings of the song (and almost all that you'll hear in live performance) clearly derive from the Coppers, though often at several removes; Mary Black's C&W-style rendering (pretty enough, but a little bland and MOR by comparison) often being an intermediate source. She learned several songs she recorded at that time from Nic Jones (some via her brother Shay rather than directly) and, as I've said in some at least of the earlier discussions here of this song, this is undoubtedly one such; as a close listening to the various examples will show.

As to which of all these is 'better'; that's a subjective matter. I know which I prefer, but other people with different aesthetic approaches will have their own different ideas.

On the general topic, I recall the Corries with some nostalgic affection (childhood memories, you know); the same goes for the Dubliners and the Spinners, for example; though the Corries at their best were, I feel, musically more adventurous. I still have a vinyl copy of 'Strings and Things', featuring the combolins. At their worst (and I'm afraid that I'd put 'Flower of Scotland' in that bracket) they were just naff; but that tends to go with the territory when you aim at a mass audience.