Relentless fast playing in a session is just plain wearisome. Irish music calls for lots of attention to ornamentation and variation, and if these are becoming the victims of excessive speed in a particular setting then I think you could with some justice moan about the playing. Not only can these aspects of the playing be overwhelmed but also the less experienced players are not able to hone their craft where it really matters, playing live with other musicians. However, it isn't a simple issue. Slow playing all night is also wearisome to listen to (who cares who's listening, did I hear?), as is an insistence on some kind of adherence to a "good tempo for dancing" when there are no dancers to dance. I think a nice mixture is best all round myself. Patrick Street are (is?) an interesting example. The playing sounds relaxed and spacious but try playing along and you discover that they're actually not exactly hanging around. What they are doing is playing briskly well within their (considerable) powers in each element of the music, an ideal balance (and the tasty arrangements help as well, of course). We shouldn't condemn fast playing outright. As someone above pointed out, it isn't exactly new. Some of the old guys, the Morrisons of this world, often played at breakneck speed. I sometimes wonder whether they really wanted to play that fast or whether they were playing fast to adapt to the time constraint for each side of a 78. Some of it doesn't sound too good to my ears. Sacrilege! Four Men And A Dog played superfast on a number of tracks on their first CD "Barking Mad," but there is lovely articulation all the same and no sense of strain. They are just very good at it. On the whole we should, I think, be discussing that elusive thing, good taste, and not rules.

As for metronomes, as far as I'm concerned they have one use only, to help detect and iron out irregularities in internal rhythm in tunes. Extensive playing along with a metronome to keep you from speeding up will only serve to delay the day when you can stand on your own feet. You learn things like that by developing listening and interacting skills when playing with other musicians, not trying slavishly to follow some mechanical contraption. Use it for diagnosis only then ditch it. Good, expressive music is never metronomic.