Here's that tune in E flat with the broken-rhythm signs coded in the way I suggested:

  X:1
  T:Hillside Echoes
  R:marching air
  D:Joe Cormier, The Dances Down Home
  Z:Paul Stewart Cranford (P.S.C.), <http://www.cranfordpub.com>
  L:1/8
  Q:244
  M:C|
  F:http://cranfordpub.com/tunes/abcs/CormierJoe.abc
  % 2009-01-22 20:54:58 UT
  K:Eb
  GF|E3 B, G,>B,E<G|B3   G E2 B,2  |C<A,F>G A>GF>E|D<B=A<c B>_AG<F|
     E3 B, G,>B,E<G|B<Ge>B G>EB,>G,|A,<CF>E D<cB<D|E4      E2    :|
  a2|g3 e  B>E``G<E|A>GF>E G<Be<g  |a>g`f<e g<eB<G|A2 F2   F2  GA |
     B3 c  B2   cd |e>BG<e c>BA<G  |A<C`F>E D<cB<D|E4      E2    :|

Two further points.

There's no need to do the transposition in ABC since the converter utilities at folkinfo.org and concertina.net can do it for you - so can free-standing programs like BarFly.

And that version in G is probably no easier to play than the original, since the high C will need third position. The tune has such a wide range that the only other key you can do it in that stays in first position and has a simpler key signature is F. I doubt whether that would be much easier.