Thomas Moran probably deserves a new thread to himself; there was a Folktracks cassette/CD FTX-076 'The Bonny Bunch of Roses' with some 32 songs recorded by Seamus Ennis for the BBC in 1954, all of which appear in Jim's list above from the JEFDSS 1955, and in the Roud Index (though I think 'Jackie Eraser' should be 'Jack Mulroe'). Dick Greenhaus at Camsco should be able to supply a copy, but I'm waiting to see what turns up in the forthcoming Topic 'Voice of the People 2' based on the Peter Kennedy and BBC collections. The fragments of his songs which appear in the FSB series really don't do him any justice.

At the same time in 1954 Seamus Ennis also collected four songs from Mary Reynolds of Mohill, County Leitrim. I've been listening to her version of 'The Lakes of Shellin', but I'd love to hear her sing 'Sweet Mohill For Me', 'The Shores of Loch Bran', and 'My Darling Sleeps in England'.

Regarding the similarity of Thomas Moran's 'Cruel Mother' to 'The Maid and the Palmer', I think Malcolm Douglas mentioned above that Child thought that the seven-year penances verses in 'Cruel Mother' all belonged properly to the 'Maid and Palmer'.
There is a 1967 article in the 'Malahat Review' (which I haven't read) by the ballad scholar David Buchan on the relationships between these two ballads 'The Maid, The Palmer and the Cruel Mother' which, if you can track it down, could shed some light on the subject.

Matthew Edwards