As someone who has studied anthropology, or sociology, will of course know, cultures (or nation) which have been subsumed into a greater whole, under a greater power, such as historically has been the case with (Northern) Ireland and Scotland as part of the British Isles with those countries seeking to define themselves against the hegemony of England. England has not, historically, felt the same need. Its strength has been, in fact, its ability to absorb and adapt and re-present in an English context a hotch potch of different influences.

Cultural differences in the British Isles, in terms of traditional music, may well be more indicative of what Benedict Anderson calls 'Imagined Communities' than geographically bounded, or racially constituted, communities.