Maybe so, but has the Irish parallel love of country music and the way they have incorporated it into ballads really done the music of say The Chieftains any harm. No, it has just added a populist strain to their music which gives it universal appeal.

my Irish friends tell tell me that their class system is more subtle and less 'in yer face' than ours, but just as deadly. I just have to take their word for that.

Seems to me their music fares better under whatever class system prevails over there.