This is a great thread, and it treats a topic that deserves closer inspections... I'm currently residing in France, making a meagre living playing different genres of traditional music in local pubs and restaurants. I began in an Irished (themed) bar called O'Connel's, at a session headed by a singer/guitarist from Germany, who was raised on Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack, and Bob Dylan. What I've learned during my stay here is that balance is a fundamental part of any session. Despite its historical origins, the guitar has come to be a major part of the Irish musical tradition. I learned many of the Irish rebel songs I play from the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, and although it is admittedly a more ballad oriented facet of the Irish musical tradition, it is no less part of the genre, it is no less a major element of its appeal. There are pubs here in Rennes where musicians who don't speak english gather to play instrumental irish music (banjos, flutes, fiddles, bazukis, etc), and after sitting in on a couple of those types of sessions, I must admit that it can become a little too much. There is no spirit of fun at those types of sessions, no humor or exchange. At O'Connel's, there are many musicians who come to play instrumental, melody-based irish music, and George (the german) and I dutifully accompany with all the variation and strict rythym-based variation that we know how...Yet, there is an audience, and as Rennes is a fairly cosmopolitan, student based community, there is almost always an Irish portion of that audience. Though many appreciative a good reel, a good jig, etc, people who are drinking in a pub want to sing along. It's difficult for me to accept that singing and accompanying oneself on any type of stringed instrument (for Percy French in the 19th century, it was his banjo) is not a vital part of the Irish tradition when at almost every session we get requests (from Irish students) for Dirty Old Town, Whiskey in the Jar, Star of the County Down, Eileen Oge, Fields of Athen Rye, etc etc etc. Wit and poetry are as much a part of the Irish musical tradition as the fiddle and the flute. If the guitar in particular is a relatively recent addition to the canon, then it is only an extension of a musical approach that has been a fundamental part of the genre since it's inception; that's to say a voice and a taste for wit as accompanied by strings.

Okay, I'll step down from my soapbox...