The OP's question was about whether "folk people" like the bodhran, not just tune session people.

Nevertheless, the gobby, Trad bully boys as always seem unwilling even to let people at other kinds of folk get-togethers choose which instruments they want to include and welcome.

Maybe one of them claims the absolute authority to rigidly define "folk", and therefore to prescribe or proscribe the instruments we may use in ballad sessions and singarounds.

I would never play a drum in a tune session where it was unwanted, nor without asking first, as I know the hostility is widespread.

Some people will claim that guitars shouldn't be allowed in sessions, that banjos should be banned, that free reeds - especially harmonicas and piano accordians should be kept out.

The origins of the bodhran are not terribly important. Sessions are full of johnny-come-lately, "non-Trad" instruments. There are people who would ban everything except pipes, fiddles, flute and harp (and maybe whistle). What is important is whether the instrument can add to the proceedings, or at least not detract or ruin.

I endured a lecture once in a pub in Kerry from a bloke who claimed to be a fiddle player, although he didn't have a fiddle with him... I had sat in on a session with my mandolin, which was fine until he heard my English accent. Upon sussing my nationality he decided to tell me all about the music and its origins. He was a pain in the arse, but he did make a point...

Much of session music is dance music, or adapted from dance music.

That said, I pity the dancer who would try to dance along with 'Maid Behind the Bar' at the speed some session wankers play it (I know it's on many people's sneered-at, cliche tune list, but if you're that desperate to get it over with, why play it at all?).

I digress. Dance music. A lot of it is basically dance music. When it was danced to, more widely than it is now, it was often customary for dancers to wear footwear that would make a racket when battered against stone flags. Or to dance upon a wooden floor that would make a noise. This Kerry geezer reckoned that you'd get people trying to dance louder than each other.

Now, I don't know if that's true or not. Strikes me as plausible.

In the absence of dancers, I see nothing inappropriate in percussion filling the sonic space that might otherwise be occupied by feet.

I am happy to have the courtesy not to play my bodhran in your session. Fair's fair, and I'd hope that even a pure-drop big mouth would find the same manners and not slag off my drum in my local pub where all are welcome.

If they did, they would be inviting a lesson in a different kind of percussion.