I would also respectfully disagree with Jim's position. I'm reminded of the 'Bring out your dead' scene in "Monthy Python and the Holy Grail", the tradition is dead but may still be slightly healthy among travellers and in West Clare.

Being familiar in particular with the West Clare tradition, I would have to say that I would declare it to be in good health. I know of many musicians whose traditional credentials are beyond question (by most definitions at least) from all parts of Clare who are still playing, singing and composing in a style which has a direct link back to the last century and the previous one, and are busily passing their music on to a new generation.

What may be true is that there is little material of interest to the collector of unrecorded songs and tunes. Even if this is the case, this does not, in my opinion, mean that the tradition is dead. It may mean that material for the sort of folklorist who was around in the last century is drying up, but this does not as far as I am concerned equate to the death of the tradition.