Hi Medievallassie, I agree in part with you about Comhaltas; I think many adjudicators are OK, but the organisation itself is pretty pants. Many of the senior people are not musicians themselves (a bit like many football administrators who have never kicked a ball). They - and many others - fail to understand that a song or a tune can BECOME traditional, if it adopted by the musicians in that tradition.

I wonder how Comhaltas would feel about She Moved Through the Fair? The tune is traditional, although the words were composed by Padraic Colum; it has been pretty well assimilated into the traditional music canon. Some people, like some of those in Comhaltas, have the rather simplistic view that if you don't know the composer, it's trad, but if you do know the composer, it's not trad.

On this basis, I'd be happy enough to sing Farewell to Tarwathie as a traditional song, whilst acknowledging George Scroggie's part in its creation. Personally, I think the words work better as song lyrics than as a poem.

Gordon