Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that Jim is the only contributer here who is "living in Ireland".
Now we all know that you perform fairly regularly in British folk clubs, Dick, but how many would that have been, this year, say ? Would it be enough to make a general observation as to whether or not Jim's belief that "folk" songs [ however you define that ] are not generally being sung in the folk clubs as they are in 2018 is true or not ? I'm not taking any sides in any debate here, but would be genuinely interested to know.
I speak as one who - like Jim - more or less gave up on folk clubs some years ago for the same reasons as him, but also for an appalling drop in musical standards [ IMHO ].
Do "purists" exist ? Yes, I've been called that myself, but it's not true, and it wouldn't worry me anyway - I've been called worse. :)