I recall chatting with Micho Russell, in Doolin in County Clare in 1979and he was very concerned about the onset of commercialism and TV in Ireland which had started to destroy homemade traditional music but he perceived it had only survived and started to grow again as a result of the activities of the Comhaltas, as it is now known as they arranged dancing singing and music classes for all of the traditional forms and promoted competitions( I used to enter some myself when I attended the local irish club) between clubs and thus engendered a love of the music and a facility where you could learn it.
Tell me where can you learn traditional instruments and style these days - to play English music. Did EFDSS take any lessons from Comhaltas - perhaps not. It is however good to see the Newcastle degree course bringing forward some brilliant performers of all sorts - we had to wait a long time for it though