"The big difference between English and Irish music is that the English tradition is a broken one. It was lost and then made up. It's sad. It's quite possible that English music could well have been as good as Irish music, and I'm certain that English music heavily influenced Irish music in a positive way. But it was lost and that's that. And I'd rather you cried about it than tried to revive it with hopelessly shallow middle class earnestness"
I cant find any sense in this statement can anyone else?, it makes an assumption that everyone who is interested in the English tradition is middle class, it assumes that English folk song and music cant be made up, it assumes or kind of implies that irish songs and tunes are not made up, or havent been in the past., ALL OF WHICH IS NOT CORRECT.      Paddy Fahey and JuniorCrehan, are examples of irish instrumentalists who have successfully added to the tradition with their own compositions.
On the English side there are also plenty of examples of recent songs that have been mistaken by Irish singers as Traditional Irish songs, there are also examples of composers who are English who have added to the English Tradition.