"nonsense, Comhaltas started to get money in the sixties over 50 years ago to promote traditional music"
And virtually ran Irish music into the ground with its diddly-di approach, its politics and its competitions.
It remained where it was and the leading influence in Irish music because its director managed to get himself appointed to the senate and manipulate the purse strings in favour of its own organisation.
That grip was broken by the setting up of The Willie Clancy Summer School, forty years ago, which rejected Comhaltas's political and competitive advances, and the setting up of The Irish Traditional Music Archive which was in no way influenced by C.C.E.
Up to this point, musicians could not find pubs which would allow them to play and some of Ireland's leading musicians have described how, when they went to C.C.E. classes, they had to hide their instruments under their coats for fear of having them damaged by their schoolmates.
Changed in a period of around five years.
In Britain, C.C.E. were renowned for driving many young people out of the music because of the competition ethos - got a number of them on tape talking about it.
Around 1975, The West London Branch of Comhaltas was expelled from the organisation for refusing to take part in a political fund-raising scheme - ask Ralph McTell - he was a member at the time.
The 2000 report on the state of Irish music made by Larry Murphy was laughed out of court and made the national headlines - a beauriful satirisation of it was published in The Phoenix Magazine
Comhaltas my arse - still competing away with its wannabe Riverdance girls in wigs and green dresses, for the glittering prizes
"Nonsense" just about sums it up.
Jim Carroll