""I swear to God my late godmother (born in the 1930s) didn't know what a ceilidh was, but, as said above, did learn English country dances at her English school.

Must England become the nation that celebrates everybody else's culture? Yes our past imperialism was wrong, but adding the other wrong of neglecting our own good culture does not make a right.""

For God's sake Dave, get over yourself.

Your mother may not have used the word Ceilidh, and for sure the schools taught "English Country Dance", but I was born in 41, and I grew up going to English Ceilidhs at, among other venues, the well known Hammersmith Palais where they used to offer the chance to learn and practise on Saturday mornings and school holidays.

So the term was known and used back then.

Don T.