A major point that has been missed in this thread is the obvious fact that the bodhran is only really suitable for the accompiament of Irish music, clearly we don't just play Irish music ALL the time, there is English,French,French-Canadian,Scandinavian etc. None of this music requires the driving rhythm that is a characteristic of Irish music. In fact playing the bodhran on any other style of music actually destroys the nature of the music and makes everything sound Irish (like it's the only type of folk music in the world or something). I have been known to be very rude to people who ruin my music by playing inapropriately and also ruin the session for everyone by just not bothering to try to understand the music. And as for the bodhran player who started playing from the audience while John Kirkpatrick was on stage!...... John told him to SHUT UP, Quite right!