Well it wasn't really in folk clubs. it was when i was gigging Irish theme bars and Irish pubs. That particular one was in Nottingham, next to a police station. there were requests for Sean South, but the landlady was having none of it.

Theres a lot of folksongs from the early revival days that have gone missing. You don't hear Flora, Lilly of the West and east Virginia nowadays.
Wor Geordie's lost his penker
Sixteen Come Sunday

probably they get sung somewhere.