Geoff Wallis.
I rely upon my ears,.my ears tell me,that there is a differnce between ulster whistle playing,and the style I hear around here in County Cork and Kerry.
there are other differences on other instruments too, the flute for instance[there is an ulster style of playing the flute] and a roscommon style,.
ulster has much scottish influence in its music as has Donegal,but it is part of Ireland.[Geographically and hopefully soon, politically]and Ulster styles of playing are still valid.
different styles exist in uillean piping, there is an open and a closed style of playing.,represented at the moment by Paddy Keenan and Liam O flynn,[paddy keenan comes from a travellers background].
Foolestroupe made a good point he plays in his own style,that is valid too,as long as the music is good to dance too[and galways is,and as long as the dancers feet are not tied to the floor by the musicians,everything is acceptable,we will all have personal preferences.
What is wrong is for people like O Brien Moran,to say that the way Galway plays is an example of how not to play a hornpipe.
By the way, hornpipes are played differently again in Scotland and England,the Irish do not have a monopoly on the stylistic playing of hornpipes.
Personally,I find generally, the Scottish and English and James Galways style ,of heavily dotting the hornpipes, better for dancing,but I would never say that the other style is wrong,it is just a question of preference.