I have no intention of taking this further but to repeat what I have said many times in the past; our knowledge of the oral tradition dates back only to the end of the 19th century, we have no idea which of them (though it it quite possible, even likely many did) might have been taken from existing oral sources.
Our experience with Travellers gave clear evidence of singers taking songs from their oral traditions to have them printed to be sold.
It has always been assumed that our song traditions were a mixture of those created by 'the folk' and those made for sale - nothing new has emerged to change that opinion; presenting only one side of the situation does not negate the other
I refuse to believe that the 'folk's' practice of song-making was confined to 'a few retired people scribbling verses to fill in the empty hours' as the oral tradition was once described here
My paper, 'Breaking ind in Church) (available on Academia) shows the extent to which the Irish put their everyday experiences into verse as late as the first half of the 20th century - were they alone in doing so ?
Steve's work is an invaluable contribution to understanding the history of our folk songs in print; it tells us nothing of their origins
Jim Carroll