Howard, examples of vauable traditional singing styles can also be heard when listening to some revival singers.
Jim, your collection "around the hills of clare"contained some singers collected by you who wrote their own songs or learned other contemporary songs[ i cant find the cd right now] but I doubt if you described them as traditional singers?
Jim you are an exception ,most collectors collect songs from traditional singers,they do not collect singers of contemporary[late20th or21st century written] or self penned songs.