Reading the thread again from the beginning, which was informative and very enjoyable, I thought I should clarify the festival thing. The unsatisfactory session that Ella referred to was the usual casual gathering that takes place in The Angel Hotel and not one that was part of the official festival. The official (led) English session, that I referred to was in The Rose and Crown and I did not attend either of these.

The gatherings in The Angel, I find to be as Ella describes and I don't think I would attend an English only session on principle. Most of my time was spent in the official Irish session, led by Steve Morris, in the Old Road Tavern. Where I also saw a French session, about thirty chaps singing wearing night-gowns and fez's, a group of ex-pats from Oz and about every other form of music you could think of.

A very English session, in fact,,,,,,, if that doesn't sound too Irish?