Surely the deffinition of 'traditional' also contains the fact that the song is written in a certain idiom, ie maritime tradition, emcompassing all sea songs, tunes etc. I remember much of the comment about such present day composers such as Connolly and Meek of Grimsby, that they write 'traditional songs' hence the age bit disappears. Tradition to me is a category of style, and yes the age bit does influence its style. What is now-a-days modern folk songs? Kate Rusby takes old songs and re-arranges them in a beautiful way, played in a style that is popular at the moment, does that take away its label of a traditional song? I think not. Forget age, consider style!