"negativity- we're talking the Gaelic League and more recently Comhaltas- who put the music & dance in a straitjacket from which it is still not free. "
I'm delighted to agree with you on both counts, but am just as delighted to inform you that both appear to be a thing of the past as far as what is now happening here
The great Irish music researcher, Brendan Breathnach, once summed up Comhaltas beautifully when he described it as "an organisation with a great future behind it"
The music here has (to use a local phrase) taken feet of its own and is forging its own future in the hands of new-coming youngsters, independent of the competition ethos that once drove so many non- medal winners away.
As far as dance is concerned, my introduction (as an observer) was to be able to visit a bar, Gleeson's, some miles out of town and wath elderly locals dance the Clare sets to the music of Junior Crehan and his colleagues (known fondly as 'Dad's Army' or 'The Stiff Six) - not an adjudicator to be seen for miles.
The church's collusion with the Government which led to the virtual destruction of dancing at home (after they had destroyed crossroads dancing) is deserving of a study on its own
Jim Carroll