How can Folksongs and traditional songs in particular, not have at least some element of political content in them, are they not, in the main , expression of the goings on in the lives of ordinary people and therefore to some degree , political. Even Hymns and spirituals have some reference to social inequality and moral rectitude which must be   political to some. I think it would be difficult to hold a whole night of singing without acknowledging that nearly every song could be considered offensive to someone if they HAD A MIND TO BE OFFENDED. . The bawdy inoffensive titivator can now evoke as many tuts as it does titters among the so called politically correct. I think that in the main, lust and lustfulness are being celebrated despite the jealous spouses, unwanted pregnancies and doses of the not so nice, but not everyone agrees.
In every row, fight, battle, war and so on there was a winner and a loser, consequently not everbody can be happy with the result and by extension may not be happy with songs celebrating the event(s). It cuts both ways ,the colonised , ungrateful wretches that we were/are, celebrate their efforts to attain their liberation and these songs are sure to rub their former or actual colonisers the wrong way.
Songs of worker solidarity and struggle may not hold much lustre for management types and so on ..............BUT    all Traditional songs have their own validity , integrity ,time and place.
Coming up to the 1966 celebration of 1916 in the Republic of Ireland , we kids were taught Patriotic Songs which celebrated a bunch of Rebels getting the living shit kicked out them but eventually winning freedom for a partitioned Free State. We weren't just taught them they were beaten into us. Two and a half years later 1969 when the Troubles kicked off again in the North, the Irish Government went to great pains to keep the songs thay had had kicked into us, banned off the radio, ensuring in the process that anybody who didn't already know them learned them. ( Wonder if they banned our language would it have the same effect)
In England, when I sung there, and that's pre peace process, rarely in a folk session was I NOT asked to sing some of these Irish Patriotic songs possibly because the habituees were often lefty anti Thatcher types, (myself included) who thought they were being expansive. I generally declined , not because I didn't know them but because we had far more things in common than we had cultural differences and our "folkness", I felt, should be celebrated. I found it interesting too, that nobody ever sung something celebrating Cromwell or the likes, in my presence and there must be some such songs. I doubt that I'd have cared but I appreciated the kindness.
I guess the memories of the sessions in the seventies and eighties in England that I recall, had unwritten protocols that ensured that whilst there were rivalries and song nicking and changing and blahdy bloody blah, most people went to folk clubs to enjoy each others company (Done to death songs often adding to the occasion) they were a great bit of crack. If you're new to the scene ask just the old hands what they feel is right though never just get one opinion ,there are jokers in every pack.

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Left above unsigned sorry Mrs/Ms/Mr/Sir/Lady (Delete as appropriate) Mudcat, New here and only learning the ropes.
Maybe I should start a thread "Things you shouldn't do on Mudcat"
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