I am not sure that crticism from someone who has only been in a folk club once in fifteen years is informed criticism, how is it acceptable to make statements and pontificate about folk clubs if you have only been to one once in fifteen years, it is in fact no different from me pontificating about church services when i have not been once in fifteen years, its reminscent of alice in wonderland or the mad hatters tea party.
as for tilting at windmills, i can think of only one mudcat member who does that regularly.
CCE in ireland has been partly responsible for the promotion of irish tradtional music as has the Willie Clancy summer school, this is not opinion it is fact, that does not mean that i like the compoetitive side of CCE,
CCE also funds trad music festivals that are not competitive and sponors trad sessions. it is important to make informed and accurate criticism, to criticise for the sake of criticising and to make uninformed criticism of anything is reminscent of Don Quixote
CCE is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. We’re a non-profit cultural movement with hundreds of local branches around the world, and as you can read in our history we’ve been working for the cause of Irish music since the middle of the last century (1951 to be precise). Our efforts continue with increasing zeal as the movement launches itself into the 21st century.

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What We Do

Because we’re so many different things to different people, it can be hard to keep track of the true scope of our activities! You might have been involved with a Comhaltas event and not even known it.

    If you’re a student of Irish music, you might know about the music, dance and language classes that we teach through our network of branches. If you’re interested in learning the music, you might want to find which one of our 1,000 weekly classes is closest to you.

    For musicians who like to play socially, you might be interested in finding a local Comhaltas music session. And if you’re not sure, how about just going along to listen?

    Audiences around the world have seen our touring groups bringing Irish music, dance and storytelling on annual tours.

    We also run the definitive system of competitions for Irish music, called the “Fleadh Cheoil” (literally “feast of music”). Musicians compete in a series of qualifying rounds, culminating in the annual All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.

    We’ve collected an archive of thousands of hours of Irish music recordings, a large print library and a growing collection of videos. You can get a sample of some of this material in the Music section of our website.

    In an effort to promote the music of Ireland, we publish recordings, books and tutorials of Irish traditional music. You might want to take a listen over in our shop.