I was a folkbaby, thanks to my parents, my relatives and my parents' friends. I was dragged round fleadhs and sessions, brought to fantastic parties and taken to great concerts. I thank them all for every minute of it. I have so many memories of falling asleep upstairs, either at home or upstairs with a pile of other folkbabies at parties, and through the floorboards you could hear the pipes and the fiddles and the hum of chatter and laughter floating up and lulling you to sleep (along with the scent of beer, whiskey and tobacco - very comforting smells to me).

It was also, I gather, a very lucrative business. At one fleadh someone found my novelty money box and got everyone playing with it, thereby filling it for me - I'm not sure what happened to the cash though. There'd also be a constant supply of orange juice and crisps and plenty of other folkbabies with whom to play.

When I think of the people I've seen and met as a child, I've been very lucky indeed. I hope my kids, when I have 'em, will be folkbabies too.