"I often wonder if the paucity of genuine erotic and bawdy songs in the Irish repertoire is not directly due to the influence of the church."

Hey Jim, nobody wrote more Bawdy songs than Robert Burns. Do you think perhaps they were also written as a direct result of the activities & attitudes of his local Churchmen? :-)

As for the upsurge in the number of young musicians in Ireland. I'm used to hearing & reading that this is all down to the activities of Comhaltas. Now your telling me Ard, that in fact it's all down to the activities of Scor.

Scotland doesn't have Comhaltas or Scor & yet it has seen the same revival in interest in Traditional Music. What does that tell you?

It tells me that the revival was going to happen anyway, with or without the interference of Scor & Comhaltas who have, as far as I can see, largely been responsible for instilling very unfortunate competitive attitudes in the minds of so many of these young musicians.

I only hope that most of them will be able to grow up & away from these unfortunate attitudes!

They, CCE & SCOR, should never have been allowed to develop Music as a Sport in Ireland! :-(

Cheers
Dick