Nice to hear from you Declan, Vin's Mam's maiden name is Tess
probably Teresa but in all these years I never heard her called anything else ) Kelly. Whether she came from exactly Mayo I can't remember. She is very infirm theses days I think getting on for 95 years.
She always used to buy the Universe, an Irish Catholic weekly paper.Apart from owt else, it contained the words of various Irish Songs, which was probably where Vins "folk" curiosity started. His Dad Alf, who has unfortunately passed away , was completely the opposite - English and non-catholic and undoubtedly where Vin gets his sense of humour. What a great couple, and obviously ( as I have seen the results , marvellous parents.
Rob Henderson wrote earlier "......his views on abortion, war and other political matters".
I support Rob from this angle .. I don't think Vin has rabid views , and I don't agree with some of them, but F*cking Hell !!! what is our folk music without this diversity ?
Any how, I don't remember Bob Dylan , Pete Seeger, Donovan, Eric Bogle etc etc. ( I tried to give a good cross section there ) singing and writing about war or political matters. Do You ? well.......perhaps a bit !!!!, hang on, quite a lot actually.
There were a lot of closed minds, both forcibly and acquiesced, in Germany in the 1930's, and more recently under Thatcher. Always remember your history, it's amazing how it somehow, returns to bite you on your arse ( English spelling ).
Lets forget the "Cambridge" part and call it the Clique Folk Festival.
If you think like them - You're IN ,if you don't, then F*ck off, you don't follow our narrow-minded profile of what a top performer constitutes .

Cheers,
Betsy