WMD
Not being 'purposefully obtuse' - Peggy laid out her stall fairly openly and honestly in her letter to The Living Tradition; she apologised for for her behaviour and 'confessed to her own wrongdoings'. I'm happy to grant her 'absolution' - how about you? As far as I'm concerned, she has no reason to apologise for the actions of her half-brother.
It's more than a little slick to blame the decline of the clubs on 'backbiting'.
My experience leads me to believe that they have reached the present sorry state because a parasitic growth has choked the life out of them to the extent that the term 'folk' has become meaningless and can now refer to anything from the Child ballads to the compositions of George Gershwin or William McGonagall.
Jim Carroll