To answer GUEST 11 May 18 - 04:49AM

I have never ever heard of a folk club requiring singers to submit a list of the songs they intend to sing. Mind you in some cases I think such a policy would have some benefit. For instance it would stop people turning up to same the same bloody song week after week. It would also stop people mumping about so-and-so singing some rendition of a song said "mumper" considers to be his/her own. It would encourage the singing from sheets, tablets and smart phones as those who do so could submit their repertoires in hard copy or by e-mail to the organiser beforehand.

One observation of a historical note:

"I do know that our folk songs, particularly Irish and Scots ones, carry a mass of information that is excluded from our history books because of who made them and why they were made
My argument has always been that "If you want to know the details of The Napoleonic Wars you go to the history books and official records, if you want to know of the experiences and the feelings of those who actually did the fighting, you need to go to the songs and the very few contemporary statements of those who fought"

The Napoleonic Wars is a very poor example to illustrate the point the author of the above is trying to make. More was written about that particular stramash than any other war up to that point by soldiers, officers, Generals, politicians and scholars. Highly recommended is the Memoirs of Rifleman Costello.

Also be highly sceptical of anyone attemppting to introduce things as fact and basing any "history" on things that relate to events that are qualified by the words "likely", "not necessarily accurate", and "probably". Instances described as such are opinion NOT fact.

I think Jim Carroll's suggestion of a separate thread on the reliability of historical songs is a good one but probably too contentious for above the line.