Planxty and chieftains played tunes at a swinging, gentle pace, later bands such as bothy band and pogues speeded up the playing. Old recordings of ceilidh bands play at quite a slowish and steady pace, but Irish dancing is done quite fast as well, maybe it depends on the area of Ireland. Many modern sessions have fiddles, tin whistles and irish boxes playing at a very fast pace, but have things got faster or too fast? Of course it lasts longer if you go slower and you can put more expression, gliscendos and chords into it. What do people think?