"I can't really see why people should be surprised at Child Ballads appearing in Ireland, "
It was considered up to comparatively recently that only a few Child Ballads had turned up in Ireland
Collector, Tom Munnelly - the leding expert on Irish traditional songs in English, pinned the number down to 49 up to the mid 1970s, I managed to add one to his list
Since taking on the project Tom started (for his own interest) I added a considerable number from printed sources gathered from the oral tradition, especially from emigrants fleeing the famine in the 1850s
While I was again and again surprised at which particular ballads became rooted in Ireland, I have been staggered at the number and type of rare ones that made the journey and survived.
Among the most popular in this Part of Ireland, (West Clare are The Keach in the Creel, The Suffolk Miracle, Lord Lovel and Katherine Jaffray
The most popular in the past were Captain Wedderburn's Courtship and (of course) Barbara Allen
Travellers have proved the most important carriers of the Ballads Lamkin, Young Hunting, and The Maid and the Palmer being some of the most unnexpected
When I have coompleted my project I will be distributing my findings to anybody interested
Hopefully, I will give recorded examples of all - singer friends have agreed to provide sung version from print
I would guess there are about six in Irish Gaelic (previously there were thought to have been four, with one of those dubious)
Jim Carroll