There is a problem with all accent when you consider our chosen form of artistic expression and musical pleasure comes from all over Britain and Ireland - each part having its own distinctive accent and vernacular
Back in the early sixties, not long after I'd first got into folk songs
I went with a couple of mates to the Edinburgh Festival and we were drawn to a new production of MacBeth - the main attraction (apart from the three witches dressed in diaphanous, see-through robes) was that Matt McGinn was cast as the Gatekeeper
We didn't understand a **** word!
For years I loved the sound of Jeannie Roberton's singing, ut it took some time and a fair amount of reading to understand what she was singing about

MacColl made a point of introducing ballads into the revival, eventually he breathes life into 175 Child Ballads, many in multiple versions
Personally, I'd be more than happy to forget the occasional iffy Scots pronunciation for that

WE are now faced with a problem of what to do with around fifty Irish traditional stories we recorded from elderly Irish storytellers
We can publish transcriptions, but the printed word is very much inferior to the spoken versions
Jim Carroll