i am following this thread with interest... thanks for this post:

Back in 1960, Lori Holland recorded a fine album for Folkways: 'Irish Folk Songs for Women' Folkways FG 3518. She had previously recorded 'Scottish Folk Songs for Women' Folkways FG 3517 - I don't have a copy of that. Her aim was to present songs 'which because of their very nature would be especially attractive to and more meaningfully performed by women'. The songs she chose for the Irish album were:

I know my love My bonny boy If I was a blackbird She moved through the fair The jackets green The light of the moon The patriot mother The next market day Come oh love I know where I'm going The lowlands of Holland Mrs McGrath The tri-coloured ribbon The royal blackbird

--Stewie.

i love all of these songs and perform a number of them myself. I disagree with whoever posted later that She Moved Through the Faire is not very suitable for a woman to sing; just because a song is not entirely in a female first person address (we all know many songs that jump around to different points of view, from omniscient to he to she in one song! like Banks of Claudy for example) does not mean it can't be sung by a woman...Loreena McKennitt's recording of this song is very beautiful...
Some think "If I was a blackbird" is only meant for a man but in the version I sing (and that I heard another female sing) it is clear very successful to begin "I am a young maiden my story is sad, etc." and in fact I have heard the song was originally written in this way...though I do not know the exact history...
that said, I do very much agree that male singers who would attempt this song are just as likely to be warm sensitive guys as any other traditional singer...who, granted, are not all softies or feminists, and quite a few of whom are arrogant jerks...like their female counterparts ;~o

peg