'THE exception,Walter was preseving the songs consciously BECAUSE he had nowhere to sing them until the folk revival came along,and gave him a platform'
How about his singing them within his tradition, before the revival was a twinkle in MacColl's, Lomax's, Lloyd's eye?
The song tradition was a fact of life for many communities for centuries before either Sharp's or the present revival came along.
Your statement appears to make the tradition irrelevant, and once again you appear to be setting up a pissing competition between the tradition and the revival - I wonder why - a nasty dose of Comhaltas Competitionitis no doubt!
'The Village pub had an important function,many singers sang in these pubs'.
Do you know this; where is your evidence? Walter or his family never sang in pubs; Sam Larner said his singing was done at sea or at home; Irish singing was entirely a home-based activity up to fairly late in its development, as I believe it was in England.
By confining folk song to entertainment you are ignoring other aspects of its function. It certainly was/is entertaining, but it is/was much, much more than that.
Jim Carroll