Jim C, you really need to leave your dream world occasionally and accept that very occasionally you could be (heaven forbid) plain WRONG.
The Irish tradition was in as much trouble as the various British ones in the 60s.

It was recognised by RTE as well as the BBC or why, soon after the 'emergency' was Seamus Ennis given 'a rusty bicycle and a penny jotter'(his words) & told to head west & record what he could 'before the next wave from across the Atlantic washes it all away' (again his words). He visited Drumkeeran in Leitrim in 1948 and recorded 'Lacky' Gallagher's wonderful fiddle playing- now available in CD formfrom johnmckenna.ie, incidentally
Talk to the Mulligans of Leitrim about the state of piping in Ireland before the Pipers club was established in 1968- it was pretty desperate!
   At the time of the folk boom local communities in Ireland still had musical links to the past via such as Paddy Tunney and Willie Clancy, but that was also true of Scan Tester in Sussex and Billy Pigg in Northumberland- they both pre-date the 'folk boom'by many years.
I did expect a lost world of music on my first trip to Ireland in 1964, but my first 'ballad session' soon dispelled that idea! No wonder Luke Kelly was so impressed by the Newcastle folk club. Or maybe he & Christy are excluded from your list of acceptable musicians?
The music was also still there in Doolin- it was a community then and don't tell me today's Doolin is anything but commercially driven.- if the Russells were alive today, they'd be
be turning in their grave- I can think of no such blatant abuse of the tradition anywhere in Britain!
This is not a competition, I have great respect for many in the Irish music movement, but I have already pointed out some ways in which the British folk boom influenced Irish singers & musicians,and you don't accept ANY of the argument? I think that Irish people do not generally share your blinkered views except the few who would never admit that anything good ever came from Britain.

incidentally, with all its merits, the Willie Clancy week is in its 47th year- by the first festival (1973?) there were dozens, maybe hundreds of thriving folk clubs and several festivals with ten years behind them.....