For my part, the fascinating thing about the Old Swan Band's tempos (as originally quoted) is that they purposely slowed down the speeds so that dancers could dance properly through - rather than run through - the dances. And then were criticised, so it appears, by the EFDSS for playing too slow. The implication is that the EFDSS had strict metronome settings in mind for each dance. Which seems a little rigid to me.

There surely can't be a "strict tempo" for these things - after all, it's not ballroom dancing in the Victor Sylvester sense of the phrase (remember him?). When our band plays at barn dances/ceilidhs, we certainly take the composition of the dancers (young, old, experienced, etc.) into consideration and set tempos accordingly - which is what other posters to this thread seem to do. And we play at our own speeds for "listening" tunes.

It's also interesting that the Old Swans were criticised for using the "wrong" instruments. I wonder what the EFDSS would have made of Bellowhead if that band had been around in 1974.