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.