In the '70's and early 80's, there was an extensive network of clubs in Ireland such that artistes from the UK and the mainland Europe could be regularly imported by ferry at one end of the country, passed around from club to club to club for a week or a fortnight, and poured on to the ferry at the other end of the country! I first heard Martin Carthy, the Battlefield Band, Pierre Bensusan and many others at the weekly Athone Folk Club in that way. As a measure of change, that club still exists but manages at best one gig a month. I know there are some others.

That said, the culture was never the same as a typical English folk club, of course - nor the atmosphere.

Regards