" folk is more to do with the individual. "
Irish music is largely based on solo and duet playing, virtually all singing is solo
Its seems to me is what I am hearing from England in particular, are groups, largely amplified, and mainly devoid of anything resembling folk style (including your own playing)
This is not a criticism, just pointing out that you have chosen to ignore the basis of folk music and have even expressed hostility towards it.
What on earth do you mean by "individual" - surely not 'individual groups'?
I, like John, wonder why you are so insistent in your demands to identify what you do with a music you apparently have no love for?
Traditional song and music is firmly documented as folk - we've got the books, archives and index lists to prove it.
You don't even have a consensus among yourselves, never mind a definition for what you do.
A few people turned the fortunes of Irish music around by basing what they did on what had gone before.
We have the youngsters flocking to the music, we have weekends throughout the year dedicated to players and singers like Joe Heaney, Mtrs Crotty, Seamus Ennis, The Russles, Joe Cooley, Mary Anne carolan, Geordie Hanna......, while at the same time, young musicians are forming bands and groups and and experimenting with the music.
There is a future for Irish folk music here - the only way you seem to have a future in Britain is to un-define the music and make it a poor relation of the pop scene - that's what the revival was set up to escape from all those years ago.
Jim Carroll