The difficulty seems to be that political songs (that's a shorthand expression I'm using there) need a politicised playing and listening community, and one that is attuned to the musical genre in which it's made. People who understand the music, and who understand why the issues matter.

My impression is that this hasn't been there in New York, and the uphill struggle to find it or to build it explains the problems, Larry has been facing. The hope being that people who like the music will be able to open their minds to the words.

Perhaps, with all the stuff going down in the world today, some of the people who already might be open to the words could learn to open their heads to the music as well. For, it's true enough, Larry does "happen to play the Uilleann pipes rather well".