" Mr Carroll's"
Mr Carroll again - surely a sign of insecurity - certainly one of bad manners
I'd return the favour if you didn't insist on remaining anonymous - it just seems bad-mannered to me

It seems obvious that a group of people who want 'the folk' not to have made folk songs are not prepared to talk it through and argue all the points and it seems equally obvious that those who came up the the idea in the first place haven't thought through the destructive implications of what they are claiming
Not only have they relegated English working people to non-creative customers for their culture and passed the honour over to tabloid-type writers of the past, but by undermining all past scholarship around who created our folk songs they have spancilled future scholarship - who is going to want to bother about the scribblings of past William McGonnigals other than to make fun of them

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it

There was never was a chance of changing the opinions of those who wanted something to be true, but at least I've managed to confirm n my own mind that I'm not imagining that both the 'broadside origins theory and the re-definition has not been approached with the seriousness such a profound ideas should have been - if it had, those who supporting it would have been prepared to argue for it
A sort of 'moral victory', if nothing else, if a victory were being sought
Off to Dublin for a few days to talk to people who know what their folk songs are and respect them for what they are - and certainly don't lump them in with history's commercial output
Jim