Personally I get very tired of people who whack around the old platitudes like it was done before. Especially if they can be found elsewhere advocating the use of rolls on the English concertina.

It's a tunnel vision view. In fact there's great variety in approaches among concertina players in Ireland, both young and old. It's nonsensical to give out to players in their mid teens when found playing like their teacher. If you look at the generation of players older than them, say those now in their mid twenties and produced by the same teaching method, you'll find styles develop, new directions are found.

I am not a big fan of Noel Hill or his method but I did send my son to him for lessons for a few years. Why? Because he is a good and thorough teacher who teaches his pupils to find their way around the concertina.

He's been taking his best Willie week pupils out on stage during the concertina concert for the past thirty years or so. I have seen Dympna O Sullivan, Edel Fox, Yvonne Griffin and who knows go through the ranks. They played the tunes they learned the week before the concert and then they went home and found their own voices.

Some years ago, maybe ten even, Yvonne Griffin was talking about the background of her concertina-playing. 'Noel Hill opened up the rows for us' (She was talking about both herself and her sister Lourda) implying they found new possibilities, more room to bring out the music they had in their heads. And that can only be a good thing, can't it? Yvonne is definitely among my top three concertina players, great heart in her music.

And moaning everything used to be better? That isn't what it used to be either, is it.