The folk awards are a golden opportunity - pretty much the only opportunity in fact - for folk music and folk artists to get briefly noticed by the wider world. The shortlist won't please everyone, in fact it doubt if it entirely pleases anyone, but all the acts on it deserve to be there. Yes, there are other acts who perhaps also deserve to be there, but if they are good then they stand a chance of being there some day - if the Awards don't get scrapped in the meantime. Now that would be a bad day for folk."
hilarious, Mike Harding, the sooner this kind of tomfoolery is scrapped the better, you will be advocating Comhaltas competitions next