hiya dick
   And more emphasis on the CAPS LOCK it seems too! Do you know, I have never studied and very rarely play any Celtic music at all, so my experience with the Salsas may just be particular to that clique of people. The fiddle styles in Edinburgh, the Irish and Scots musicians that play there, do seem to meld a lot.
I love the Quebecois triplet on the bow, that's more like a hiccup than what you hear over here-me and Nancy K spent a lot of time learning the up-down-up of that rather than the down-up-down we were used to. It's all the little distinguishing things, isn't it?
Of course, what has survived to a much greater extent in Ireland and Scotland is the tiny differences in regional styles, if you don't live in a place like Edinburgh. I can really only differentiate between Northern and Southern in England, North-Western and North-Eastern at a push if I don't know the tunes already. Although I can usually spot a Bampton tune played by a Bampton musician, there is something unique about that.
Would have given my right foot for more recordings of English trad fiddlers when I was growing up, and now. Not my right arm though, because I need that, obviously...
x e