"Traditional music in Ireland will survive and develop for at least another two generations- English Traditional song has been left in the hands of a few 'tree-huggers' (as they were described by a university authority when it closed down its folk studies department)."
   on what evidence is this statement made, I see The Irish singers club scene as rather inward looking, for example the insistence that irish singers clubs should be unaccompanied only, much as i love unaccompanied singing, I find the exclusion of accompanying instruments, backward looking and exclusive, I understand the reason behind it is to prevent musicians coming in and turning it into a tunes session, but imo to prevent accompanying instruments immediately makes the evening less interesting and means less variety sound wise, and means that unaccompanied singing has less impact.
Traditional irish instrumental music is being pushed in a certain direction by CCE, which I believe Jim thinks is not good for its development, and on this i would agree