Thanks for refreshing this thread for me -- I had planned to do so within the next week or so, but you were kind enough to save me the trouble!

Claymore, your experiences must have been quite a kick! Our circumstances will be quite different, of course -- whereas you were traveling with a large troupe of performers, we'll be a small family group of tourists, two of whom have some semi-professional past experience as musicians. (My brother was a serious pro for many years as a drummer, a much more accomplished player than I ever was, but as a guitarist/vocalist, he's still pretty much a rank amateur.)

I had never even considered horning in with true hard-core traditionalists -- don't really know the songs, customs, etc., etc. nearly well enough. While I have no idea what to expect, I've gotten the impression that a fairly wide variety of different kinds of sessions exist, some allowing greater latitude than others. Perhaps we'd find one or two where we might participate -- maybe more likely in the cities and towns than in the most rural areas.

I expect that my brother and I will be far more likely to err on the side of reticence than to impose ourselves where there's the slightest possibility we'd feel less than welcome. We might, after a drop or two, let it be known that we could be persuaded to participate, but someone would actually have to go through the motions of twisting our arms before we'd step forward to make fools of ourselves.

Let me also note that, while we look forward to immersing ourselves in true traditional culture as *part* of our experience, we have much broader musical interests, and would also be glad to witness an evening or two or three of more contemporary Irish music, whether or not there were any possibilty of sitting in.

Liz: my sister-in-law advised us not to pack coats and sweaters, because, she says, they have enough warm clothes to lend us. We do plan to bring some rainwear of course.