I don't read that other forum, so I wouldn't have run across that question. Redundancy may be annoying for those who read similar discussions on several venues, but for someone who doesn't cross platforms, the argument about the other location is a distraction. Will you allow that this is true? It diminishes the intended conversation here, whatever the motivation for plucking one remark to bring over here to put under the microscope.

Personally I don't have a dog in that fight - English and Irish folk tradition and their brokenness or not - they exist today as what they are, and what exists today is perfectly valid, whether there have been breaks in continuity or not. Certain things exist even if they're not overtly present - perhaps a correlation would be the Russian Orthodox religious tradition in the old USSR - when all such practice was supposedly suppressed for decades. The absence of overt practice may have served to hamstring the religion, but it didn't go away. I don't know what method the writer of the first statement thinks "broke" the English tradition, but I grew up with an American Folksinger who collected early English, Irish, Scottish and American folk songs and ballads. We were able to distinguish the origins, or does what Americans do with all of these British Isles songs make a difference to those of you still on the old sod?

SRS