Having hosted Gwilym on some of his trips to the United States, discussed traditional music with him at great length, and seen him at several concerts and presentations, I can say that his involvement in traditional music (and that includes his work with Traveller/Romani singers) has nothing to do with "turning a few quid". The amount of time and work he has put into collecting songs, preserving them, and performing them (after all, what good is a wonderful, unusual version of a trad song if it's buried in a dusty pile of cassette tapes in somebody's attic?) would never be adequately monetarily compensated - he has most likely spent far more in collecting and cataloging the music than he would ever earn gigging at folk clubs. Indeed in his first post he stated "I am not looking at all for large fees, just the opportunity to share my songs with wider audiences". I think it is very unfair to accuse someone of "stripping" someone else's culture and to compare the collection of traditional songs with a television production such as "Big Fat Gypsy Wedding", which definitely is commercial exploitation and distortion of an ethnic group's culture.    Gwilym has also collected songs from singers in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia – I don't see that as exploiting or "stripping"Appalachian culture but rather honoring and preserving it.   
I really don't understand why this thread became a slagfest – it's completely uncalled for and some of the comments have been downright mean spirited.