I disagree with ard mhaca's claim that many people in Ireland are knowledgeable about the US. The Irish, like the British, are obsessed with US pop culture (love or hate it), and their knowledge of the US is limited to knowledge of Anglo dominated pop culture, and inconsistent reporting on US politics (particularly as it relates to their own countries). Reporting by legitimate news sources in Britain are considerably more haughty towards Americans than are their Irish counterparts though.

I find it interesting to note that one of the major Irish music websites (can't remember which one off-hand right now, but I'll check my bookmarked sites and get back to you with which one) describes Mudcat as enviably good BRITISH folk music website. Not an American (or even British) blues music site, nor a website which covers the myriad of non-British folk musics of North America or any other continent.

To me, that suggests Mudcat is often perceived by those with an interest in non-Anglo folk music as being not only Anglocentric, but that the website's purpose is to serve as a website for traditional and contemporary Anglo and Anglo American folk music.

In my experience here, not nearly as many Americans users view the forum as having a British Anglocentric emphasis, as British users view the forum as US-centric. Considering that the forum is a US folk music forum, I find the complaints by British and Irish contributors that the Americans are insular to be downright rude and annoying. While it is clear that the "international" aspect of the forum is really limited to a large number of British users and a small handful of Irish users, it does seem to me that these sorts of threads are just plain ole British begrudgers rearing their ugly heads to try and start anti-American slanging matches.

In my experience, the British cyber-folk, both here and in the Usenet groups, have more than a few "issues" (as we say in the States) with Americans and the stereotypes of them they love to hate. Some are quite "in yer face" about their irrational hatred of "Americans" when they think they can get away with it.

You want to see insular? Spend a month reading uk.music.folk!