Diane, you flatter yourself. Martin wrote that the song was from East Anglia in his liner notes--remember liner notes?   Lisa Null's husband, Charlie Baum, posted the bit about Paul learning it from Mrs. Grover's version, to Mudcat. (Oddly, Lisa never told me herself, even though she has had me sing "Arthur McBride" for her. I plan to get out the reference copy of Mrs. Grover's version and give it a listen soon!)

I agree that "Arthur McBride" has political implications...and could fairly be called "a political song." My main point is ALL songs have political implications, and there's really no such thing as a song that can't be "a political song." "Happy Birthday" is, when sung by small children on state TV to Fidel Castro, or when sung outside a prison to commemorate the birthday of a political prisoner, etc. (Si Kahn points out that "She works hard for the money" and "My baby takes the Morning Train" are labor songs.)

Given that, the important question is not "is folksong political," which becomes fairly meaningless. It's "how is each song political," or "what are its political meanings?" Those change, not only for each context, but for each listener, and to simply say "it's about British colonialism in Ireland" or worse, "it's political," is simply too vague.

By the way, I would read your cuttings, Diane, if I could find them. I'll read any well-informed articles on folk music. (Okay, now I'm flattering you) What publications do you write for? I work in the largest library in the world, so chances are I could find some articles if you give me a hint on where to look.

Finally, Alistair Cooke was a remarkably interesting man, who was also always a supporter of both folk and jazz music. Like MacColl, he was from Salford, but moved away and changed his name!