Much of what you say is good,however you are too harsh on comhaltas. they do in their own way try to encourage song as well as dance, you may not think it is the right way thats only your subjective opinion. others would disagree with you [ including the thousands who go to all the fleadhs[[ many of these are not competitors]]and get great pleasure from the informal sessions which are a spin off]sorry, but Comhaltas is the rank and file members as well asthe paid staff and they were responsible for the prevention of the extinction of irish traditional dance and song , along with people like the pipers society.It may be flourishing now but thatis a reult of comhaltas and the piper societys past efforts. My advice to you is to join comhaltas and try and change the things that need changing from the inside, somebody in comhaltas is doing the right things by introducing seisuins nationally throughout the summer introducing exams as an alternative to, or as well as competitions.and locally my comhaltas branches have informal sessions round the fireside for children and adults, as well as assisting and promoting tradional music in schools. The difference between the two societies is that comhaltas is much more active[ this is not just because of funding]its about the enthusiasm at grass roots level of the members to promote song and dance]Finally if efdss isnt getting the funding that is probably through their own mis management and lack of government pressure and lack of enthusiasm, however even in efdss i see some positive encouragement of dance which is good even though it could be more.