"Folk is a Very Modern Phenomenon and might be a tad too self-conscious
The term itselfwas conceived in relation to culture in 1846 and applied to song about 50 years later
In both cases, it was applied to a specific group of people and specific aspects of their culture
How "very" is "very modern".
Nothing else in your posting makes any sort of sense as it seems to refer to tradition as being "very modern"
Gibberish
Sorry t repeat your eloquently-made point Mike - its seems to be the one these people have the most difficulty in understanding
Jim Carroll
A Joe Heaney story always worth repeating
A Protestant man living in Connemara, fell in love with a local Catholic girl and was told he would have to take the Catholic faith in order to marry her.
He agreed and they were wed.
One Friday, a couple of weeks after the wedding, the priest was passing the newly-wed's home and caught the smell of frying bacon through the window - in those days, it was forbidden for Catholics to eat meat on a Friday.
He burst into the house and found the man just tucking into a feed of bacon and cabbage.
He berated him and told him that what he was doing was forbidden to a Catholic.
The man said he had been brought up on bacon and cabbage and he found it very hard to break the habit.
The priest told him he must only eat fish on Fridays and the next Friday he was tempted to do otherwise he should repeat to himself, "I'm a Catholic, I'm a Catholic, I'm a Catholic....." as long as it took for the temptation to go away.
A few Fridays later, the priest was passing again and,again, he caught the smell of frying bacon.
In a fury, he threw his bike into the hedge, stormed up the path and burst into the house, where he found the man sitting at the table in front of a huge lump of bacon, chanting, "you're a fish, you're a fish, you're a fish....."