Thanks, Martin. I see that I even took part!

I agree fully with your statement there that if "Limerick" is a recent song, it a remarkable "pastiche" of nineteenth-century style and usage.

The present evidence is insufficient to determine which song, "Limerick" or Liverpool," "came first." (Though its late discovery disturbs me, my cautious bet must be on "Limerick.")

What is of greater interes, though, is that outside of the Revival, both songs were exceedingly rare. Except, evidently, for a bare handful of singers, neither song had a presence in "tradition." (In other words, you could easily have lived a lifetime in Ireland or at sea having heard neither!)

In the crass terms of simple "popularity" and "familiarity" among performers of folk songs, "Liverpool" got its start in the 1960s (not even Lloyd or MacColl recorded it), and "Limerick" in the twenty-first century.

That puts them both in a different cultural perspective.