A great programme!. It raises some intersting issues about the role of emigrant communities in the development of the music.


Like New York and Chicago etc in the 20s ,London was a 'cultural cauldron', in the post war period and as people settled and raised famiies they created music and it found its way back home as well as creating part of a scene for visiting musicians. The evolving folk scene helped too with its sympathy for civil rights , I remember Christy Moore doing better in England than at home and I met some great Irish musicians as a young man. In fact that led me to appreciate my own family traditions as well as Americana.


What will he current emigration of young people from Ireland bring? Can such communities fit in with high house prices and pub changes ?