"usages of the word in Harker are wrong."
That has been done at length far better than I could by Brian Peters
The fact that the book was so soundly placed in the dustbin of history back in the day confirms much of what has been said here

I have no desire to continue the ludicrous discussion on Berts opinion of broadsides, but I would like to take the question of literacy and its effects on the tradition further when I have time
We recorded a fair amount of information on this subject from the singers themselves, mainly from the Clare and Traveller ones
It really isn't as simple as just learning songs from print and them later becoming 'traditional' - far more complicated that that
One of the high points of our work with Tavellers was meeting Mikeen McCarthy, a Traveller ballad seller, street and 'fireside' singer, lore-bearer and storyteller...... from rural West Kerry
Mikeen described taking (mainly) his father's songs into a printer's shop, reciting them over the counter and having them run off as 'ballad sheets' to be sold at the local fairs and markets
Far from being hastily produced 'hack productions', these were examples of the 'oral tradition in print' (along with non-traditional songs)
Mikeen also described how, when the family met up with Travellers from elsewhere, they would spend time swapping songs, to be sung and sold - a peep at how the oral and ballad selling traditions worked
The last known ballad sheet sold in The West of Ireland was a parody of a 1950s pop song, entitled 'The Bar With no Stout' - based on a real-life situation faced by a local publican at the time
We once asked Mikeen if he knew of any song that had been specifically made to be sold on the ballad sheets - he replied, "Why should anybody go to the trouble of doing that - there were plenty of songs available to sell in those days"
Jim Carroll