Preservation of original forms is a commendable contribution to history, but attempts to prevent or prohibit adaptation or evolution is simply foolhardy. In the competition element of Comhaltas, and kindred groups in other idioms, I have no problem with a "purist" strand. However, to posit purism as a bar to growth shows a significant lack of understanding of what is commonly referred to here as "the folk process." The whole thing very likely started with bone whistles and a drum of some sort, long before there was a fiddle in the mix. The apparent question then is what time frame does a purist choose as a foundation period for a "tradition?" A moving target if ever there was one.