Actually Guest Genie, everyone isn't just like the English when it comes to their own culture. In fact, most of us aren't like the English at all in that regard.

I agree it is very complex. It might help if you learned more about how cultural nationalism and development of the nation state in the modern era (that's the one in which English colonial expansion was at it's peak)used English "tradition" as evidence of English superiority vis a vis the cultural traditions of those they conquered.

If you are too close to it, you might not be able to see how that happened vis a vis the conquered Celtic peoples in those islands. But if you give yourself a bit of a distance, say look at how the English depicted the cultural traditions of indigenous native peoples of the Americas, you might get a better sense of how it all works.

Just a thought.

You might also want to read up on how participating in revivalism/re-enacting isn't the same thing as participating in an on-going living tradition. I view the "English traditions" so often invoked as living revived and reinvented traditions. So that is another difference between "English traditions" and Irish ones (just to use an example). Irish traditions came very close to being wiped out (and some, in fact, are gone forever) both in Ireland and Britain, but the tradition has always remained strong in Irish American communities in North America. Sadly, that hasn't been true of Anglo American folk music to the same extent. There was no one ethnic community to maintain it and pass it on generation to generation as was the case with Irish traditional music in the US.

And IMO, Steve Parkes' message should be heeded. Colonizers look at "tradition" differently than the colonized do.