The bloke you need to talk to is Ian Campbell. His group and the Dubs were all part of that early English/Scottish scene.

His knowledge of and number of anecdotes is pretty much without parallel, I should have thought. So if I were you I'd get meself over to Ian switch on the tape recorder - ask him what he knows about the early days of the Dubliners - come back three or four hours later - follow up the leads - and your library will be pretty full!

great man!