McGrath, the French are heavily into musique celtique - we have the 'Irish' bars here too. (Which are, incidentally, a welcome oasis in the plethora of French bars clad in formica which close at 9pm.)I'm English, live in Normandy, playing in an band doing 'musique irlandaise' but we slip in quite a lot of English trad., which is my first love... and they don't notice. I mean, they enjoy it along with all the other stuff, not that they don't notice us playing it!

Yes, English people are remarkably ignorant of their own heritage - ask a selection of English people "When is St George's Day?" - most of them will be unable to answer. Echoing Bert, folk music as taught in schools was stultifyingly boring, sanitised, and terribly sweet. To the French (I'm obviously generalising here) all English speaking people are Anglais (or American) and all trad music from the British Isles is Irlandaise! Perhaps an exception is made for bagpipes, which of course are Scottish?:-}

Ella, not all Morris dancers are men (see previous threads). And before you turn up your nose at them - try it! The time I spent as a morris dancer is the fittest I've ever been...

Jo