The point of the way I characterized the Irish scene was to wind Jim up - if he knows so much about how to run a folk club and what the punters want, why isn't there an all-trad-all-the-time Carroll's Club to pull in his model-of-discernment locals? And if he doesn't see anything to worry about with the absence of Irish clubs why isn't he saying "bring on the apocalypse" about the British ones?

BTW the Spinners are the only British folk act I can remember ever seeing on TV, but then I don't watch a lot of TV. Well done them for seeing Caribbean music as part of a common tradition with that of the British Isles.