"next a quote from johnny o leary, the music is being played too fast"

There's a certain irony there because Johnny O Leary played really fast: much faster than Bobby Casey or the majority of the Clare players. The Johnny O Leary tunebook lists all the tempos he played the tunes at and they are really high. The introduction even compiles a chart of his tempos and they are at the high end for Irish music.

And it's all very well people saying that 'you know it's too fast when the music gets lost' but that varies between player to player and from listener to listener. johnny O Leary plays fast but cleanly and rhythmically. Bobby Casey plays at least 1/3 more slowly, closer to the tempos of English music, but his music doesn't sound like it. Frankie Gavin plays crazily fast and most of the time I dislike it, though it works on his duo album with Alec Finn and on his fantastic album The Master's Return.

I don't like excessive speed in traditional music but I have no idea what the rest of you consider fast or slow.