One of the most important aspects of this thread in my view is whether or not you and I have done enough research into the style of singing. Do we really know about this music, who sang it, where and why? Then it seems the "how" comes into focus.

I believe that you can hang out in Ireland for a few years (maybe requires more time) and pick up some convincing speech patterns that can translate into a creditable dialect. If you really study the recordings or better yet live with the people who know the sean nos, then it can become convincing. But to me the key is knowing the material, not just memorizing it but truly absorbing it and this is not something that you or I will be able to do easilly unless we were born or raised in that tradition.

If I wanted to sing Irish songs convincingly I would go and hang out at the Comhaltas Ceoltori Eireann in Dublin and do some mighty research. Or cruise up to the Gaeltacht for a while.

This being said, I don't have the luxury of this time and so I avoid dialects as much as possible when doing an Irish song. If I attempt Gaelic, I try to get the pronounciation down as close as I can to the region where the song comes from. As a result, I don't sing Gaelic very much.

For Americans, it's easier to assimilate the traditions of our own country because the speech patterns are more in our ears. But it's really offensive when a caucasion tries to sing in an African-American style and doesn't quite make it. But I think that an American can sing the blues regardless if they sing in their own voice without affecting a dialect and make it credible because the traditional music is in our ears. For Americans, maybe not so much for the Irish song.

Frank Hamilton