There's an ocean of threads that deal with the definition of folk music, not so much about the traditional song. When I asked the question, I was hoping for more opinions about what makes a song 'traditional', as opposed 'other' types of song. Thanks GSS for your interesting observations.

I like the idea of a traditional song having been "Handed down", but how many times, so to speak, is a song handed down before it becomes traditional? I've always thought of songs like 'Rare Ol' Times', ' The Green Fields of France', and even 'From Clare to Here' as being traditional, but having been written in the relatively recent past, they cannot have been the subject of much passing down. So, have I got it wrong?

Rog