Sorry
That should read "persuade their parents to attend non-Catholic schools"
"persuade their parents to attend non-Catholic services

Re. Braes of Balquither
Tannahill, who was linked to the song, was a weaver
Regarding my calling John Hamilton a hack, I found this interesting piece of correspondance on the song
Craig Cockburn has dealt with "Auld Lang Syne". "The Wild Mountain
Thyme" was claimed as original by Francis McPeake; in fact he did no
more than slightly adapt "The Braes of Balquhidder", a song by Robert
Tannahill from the first decade of the 19th century using a tune called
"The Three Carles o' Buchanan". That song was repeatedly anthologized
throughout the next 150 years. *But*, what nobody seems to have noticed is that Tannahill's song is an adaptation of one in John Hamilton's
"24 Scots Songs" published by Watlen in Edinburgh in 1796. Hamilton doesn't say outright that he wrote it himself, either; his more than usually muddled notation suggests he didn't and was transcribing someone else's work. So my guess is that it started out as a Scots folk song of the late 18th century by a now-unknown composer from somewhere in Stirlingshire not so very far from where Craig hails from.

That fits in pretty well with the idea that folk songs were regularly making their way into print, I think
Sorry about the mess - in a bit of a rush
Jim