Wel,, lizzie, I don't sctually see evidence of them being kept away. As Dave says, there are are a hell of a lot of young people attending ceilidhs at the moment. Sheffield has a robust student cutlture that's into folk dance, as does Manchester. Maybe you need to get out of your region a little more to get the bigger picture. So these young peeople aren't being put off by a "supercilious, obsessive, train-spotter attitude"...maybe it's just you.

"So...what are the Irish doing right, that we're doing wrong then?"

If you read the recent issue of English Dance and Song, you'd know the answer to this question: pouring several million pounds a year into traditional artforms. Funding a new centre for traditional music in Dublin. Acknowledging within government the significance of Irish traditional culture, both for its inherent value and for the economic benefit it brings through tourism.

That's what.