As for fiddlers, the problem with flat keys is not the first position as such, but players who heavily rely on the use of empty strings. This is generally discouraged anyway, because the sounds differ from the ones of fingered notes.

Grishka, I think you should pop across to Clare and tell Tommy Peoples that. Clearly the Irish tradition has got it all wrong.

As for getting tired of the keys, well, a session is not a show, it's for the musicians, and presumably they aren't tyrannised or they'd stop. If you want other keys, find a set of like- minded musicians and play with them.

There was a vogue (a Boolavogue?) in Irish sessions a few years ago to play in keys based on E flat. This was accomplished largely by tuning the fiddle up a semitone, and they claimed it was for the brighter sound, but many people think it was to leave annoying box players high and dry. A lot of old six- hole flutes are tuned to E flat anyway, they were used in bands with brass instruments which for some unknown reason have nearly always been in flat keys, and these sessions might have been a cynical ploy by dealers to offload slow- selling instruments.