Thank you, john. There's me, waving my ignorance like a flag yet again.

Chris B, you're right: people don't get involved in English folk dancing (and other aspects of culture) because they don't want to, and we need to adress the reasons why. But I'm not sure if Comhaltas is solely responsible for the current popularity of Irish traditional culture, nor if they provide a model for best practice in folk development.

I can only speak from personal experience, based on a venue (in the UK) where I used to work, where we did quite a lot of Irish music and dance. The perceptions of Comhaltas (amongst many of the Irish people with whom we worked closely) were not dissimilar to accusations sometimes made against EFDSS: stuffy, rigid, old-fashioned, stuck in its ways, insular, unwilling to adapt or be forward-thinking. I never found them particularly open or welcoming.

I don't think it's racist to suggest that there are many different kinds of people involved in the support and development of Irish traditional music - and many of them will find Comhaltas a difficult or irrelevant organisation.