Jim, I'll just drop this angle after this post, as I sense you are misunderstanding me. You keep making insinuations, and I keep trying to rein them in, pointing out that there isn't really any evidence of anything illegal. I just wish you'd stop because insinuating financial wrongdoing on this list isn't productive and only fans the flames. Also, in the end, we can bloviate endlessly here about whether comhaltas has broken any rules or laws. It won't change either the facts of the case or the outcome.

As to your questions, "are charities [in Ireland] not required to keep books and publish accounts," I don't know. Do you? If you do, why not tell us which laws you think they are breaking, instead of dealing in innuendos?

I do know the laws in the US. Here, if they got this much money, they would be required to commission an audit and submit the report to the Federal Government. (Additional state requirements depend on the individual State.) In the US, there is also a public disclosure requirement, but the law only requires that the information be available on a paper form called a Form 990 during business hours to anyone who turns up at the head office. The same may well be true in Ireland, in which case you'd have to go to the head office to get this information.

When I said that many other arts organizations outside the trad arts realm have a larger budget, I wasn't trying to change the subject. I was pointing out that your insinuation that a large budget must mean that Comhaltas is violating its not-for-profit status is pretty nonsensical, because other non-profits have way more money and aren't in violation of any laws.

Finally, the issue you describe very well here:

"It is also an organisation which has a hand permanently in the public purse, thanks to the position and influence of a leader who is happy to exploit that position to guarantee it remains there..."

is one that will be familiar to many who have worked in such organizations. Labhras's personality is a two-edged sword, because, make no mistake, that is often exactly the type of personality you NEED running such an organization to ensure it gets its share of funding. It cannot have been a bad thing for Irish traditional music to have had such a driving force running comhaltas. His hand in the public purse, for the most part, has helped the music thrive.

Think of it this way: on the one hand you lament that in the UK traditional music gets no funding. On the other you lambaste Labhras for muscling up to the public purse in Ireland and wresting away money for traditional music. There is a bit of a disconnect here, in the sense that if there were a Labhras-like figure in the UK, the funding situation for traditional music might be better.

Sadly, the other side of Labhras's personality type is that when it comes in conflict with others in the organization, the results can be ugly, as in this case. So we can agree on the unpleasant aspects of his character. But that's often the package: a strong leader who will succeed externally in raising the profile of their chosen art form, also has a hard time playing well with others within his own organization. (Cecil Sharp was a classic example of this as well.) This pattern is not a coincidence; it's a common personality type.