"Jim, please answer these questions were broadsheets written with the specific intention of making money"
They were written to make money - full stop - for no other reason, the subject matter played no part in their production unless it was judged to be saleable.
No - they certainly were not new songs when they were produced - many of them were taken from age old ballads and songs.
The last knockings of the broadside trade in Ireland included 'Little Grey Home in the West', 'Smilin' Through', 'Terence's Farewell to Kathleen', 'Patsy Fagin'... and 'The Blind Beggar', 'Betsy of Ballantown Brae' and 'Early in the Month of Spring' (Sailor's Life)
Songs like 'Drummer Boy at Waterloo' which bear the signs of having been created by the hacks, were taken up and became folk songs.
Some of them became popular songs of the day certainly, others disappeared without trace almost immediately.
No - they were not the folk songs of their day - the vast majority were probably never sung by the folk, those that were almost certainly originated with the folk.
Those made by the broadside hacks that were taken up by the folk became folk songs via the process they passed though.
What's your point?
Jim Carroll