Rosie:
"loaded with carrying the heavy weight of responsibility"
I don't think anybody is suggesting that they should; rather, what is being suggested, by me anyway, is that everybody who gets up in front of an audience and sings folk songs (not really interested in advocating on behalf of any other genre, especially the 'Great bloody Pretender'!!!), should bear enough responsibility to have done enough work beforehand to at least remember the words, sing in tune and have enough understanding of the text to be able to give an interpretation - after that, the only way is up! Nobody is asking for a virtuoso performance. I got pissed off with the Alex Campbell "Near enough for folk song" attitude forty years ago; now it seems to be standard practice and it has debased the coin.
"a valuable continuity of the historic 'spirit'"
The communities that engendered this spirit died with the Dodo and trying to resurrect them would be an exercise in extreme romanticism. Nowadays people are attracted by skill, understanding, and commitment, not nostalgic tat.
Irish traditional music is enjoying a boom at present; the young practitioners who are now coming to it in their thousands are going to the styles of Johnny Doran, Michael Docherty and Elizabeth Crotty for their examples, not the old worthy scratching out a reel for a kitchen dance; that is why we have a situation here which guarantees that the music is likely to be still being played and listened to right into the middle of this century, at least.   
In Britain, we caught our song tradition when it was very much on its last legs. Our singers, with a tiny handful of notable exceptions, were remembering songs rather than interpreting them. Virtually every singer we ever recorded apologised for "not being able to sing anymore", and told us that we "should have been here 30 years plus ago". We have much to learn from our old singers, but we also have many gaps to fill in, in what they gave us. Surely our tradition is worth presenting at its most competent (at least). No matter how many times it is claimed to the contrary, anybody possessing a modicum of intelligence or sensitivity comes to an art or an entertainment with expectations; fail to meet those expectations, even half-way, and you lose them - and your song, music, whatever suffers.   
"I appreciate that I know next to nothing about this subject."
It really is time you crept out from behind this one Rosie. Your contributions are as incisive and thoughtful as anybody's on this forum - gi'e us a break girl!!!
Jim Carroll