And your evidence for their not having been in oral circulation beforehand and taken by George Brown "to get his shilling from the printer" is.....?
We have recorded two songs, one in the Travellers tradition (concerning an arranged marriage) and one in the West Clare tradition (about an occurrence in the Irish War of Independence), which were made on the day of the events described and in circulation within the week - passing into variants within the month.
It is not for me to find evidence of it being in oral circulation first; I am making no such a definitive claim; it is up to you, who is making such claims, to show that it wasn't.
Jim Carroll