Your last sentence is spot on, Howard.

I am not too sure about the songs being usually unaccompanied. In terms of the bardic tradition, IE telling a story, you are mostly right. I am sure some storyteller/singers chose to provide themselves a a bit of musical or percussive accompaniment but I would certainly accept that in the main they just sang. However, singing is only part of the tradition. Music and in particular music to dance by has always played a massive roll in the folk traditions of any country. I don't think that either is more important than the other and personal preference comes into it a lot.

Maybe, just maybe, the oral tradition of storytelling via song has lapsed simply because if people want news or stories there are now so many other sources open to them? Music for its own sake however will never fall into disuse. At least I hope not! Poetry, whether set to music or not, is a different kettle of fish and I think people enjoy the wordcraft as much as the tune. I, for one, love Peter Bellamy's arrangements of Kipling's poems. But is that folk music? Let's not start that again... ;-)