"Sigh! In my opinion they have all appeared in print in their earliest form"
What do you base this opinion on?
"Why can't you live with my version?"
Because it isn't logical - it nowhere concides what happened elsewhere in these islands, nor beyond. Why should Irish, Scots, Albanian, French, Russian.... produce their own oral litrature and not the English - or are you also questioning their ability or inclination to do so.
"I have nowhere postulated a 'school of composers'.
Your argument implies such a school. The similarities of folk songs fully entitles them to a separate identity and if this is the case the composers must be accepted as a 'school' as distinctive as 'impressionists', 'cubists' or any other artistic group.
Sigh indeed - Steve, with respect, you come at the end of a long line of people who, for one reason or another, have set out to prove that the folk, through inability, disinclination, whatever, did not produce their own folk songs. I never bought what they were selling, nor do I buy your arguments, unless they come with more to back them up than you have produced so far.
Jim Carroll