I would guess that the lack of the guy burning on the bonfire is due to someone sowhere along the line coming up with the notion that it would give kids the idea of burning real people...

As for the other bits, I guess this is a price we pay for being more of a global community with people becoming more and more aware of what happens elsewhere and adopting traditions and ideas (it is not just tradition effected) from elsewhere although I have no idea why some are chosen in favour of others (I hate trick or treat for example).

Regarding the Irish music, I tend to prefer it to English music, largely because I find a lot of it more lively (although there are plenty of good English songs and tunes). I think a big factor here is marketing and the "celtic" label. The fact is that many of us, myself included, were not born into an English musical tradition and became aware of Irish music before much of our English tradition. Perhaps one could even argue that the Irish were better at adapting their traditions to a changing world than the English were...

Jon