Can I clear something up before this polarises into a slanging match.
My first introduction to Irish music was hearing Felix Doran play at a Comhaltas concert in Manchester sometime in the mid-sixties - I was hooked from then on.
When we started collecting her in Clare, the first musicians we met and recorded were not only CCE members, but founder members; Junior Crehan, Sean Reid, J.C. Talty... all neighbours and friends of Willie Clancy (also a key figure in CCE), who we never got to meet. Some of our the musicians we count(ed) among our oldest friends were members; without their friendship and generosity we would never have recorded the music and information that we did.
Any antipathy I feel towards Comhaltas is reserved exclusively for the leadership and its behaviour towards its rank-and-file members and other people working in the field of traditional music. I believe both have been served badly by Monkstown and the present situation at Clontarf is symptomatic of the disregard in which they are held.
Already this discussion is beginning to appear to be a for-against one, which is not how I feel about the organisation in general.
While I have some reservations about how CCE works, which I have aired on this forum in the past, they in no way reduce the respect I have for the many members who I know and count as my friends.
If this discussion is going to expand beyond the 'Clontarf' issue, I would much rather it did so off-line where I will be more than happy to air my views, supply any information I have and receive any anybody might care to give me.
Jim Carroll