>> one or two others who stare like rabbits into the headlights of the oncoming folk-future <<

I've been on the road too long to get dazzled by headlights, Suibhne. What you presented in that post was a travesty of the weight of argument in this thread, during which a succession of level-headed, coherent and generally non-fundamentalist posters have thoroughly trashed the notion that "there is no tradition" (or "folk process" or whatever). There remain two entrenched fundamentalists here (only one of whom is even attempting to advance any arguments) who are insisting that all the stuff that everyone else believes in is no more than a fabrication of those hateful folkie C-words.

The actual folk-future will be determined by a younger generation which is already ahead of you, already examining and enthusing about old traditions, already singing and music-making, and whose members are quite capable of working these things out for themselves. They are, by the way, more than happy to exchange ideas with the ageing folkie C-words you accuse of betraying them.

Personally I'd be more than happy if this bitter thread were closed before anyone else is tempted into comments one hopes they'll regret later.