I'm glad that following my blast, the conversation has been taken up by people with knowledge, interest and intent. As I said, I live in Ireland and I've enough to do but, I do know some of the people who are on the Board and will begin a chat with them - calling their attention to this thread as a start. It's likely I don't know enough about the politics of 'folk' in England so I'll desist unless I'm asked to lend a bit of weight. However, Howard's reference to Comhaltas and people not minding that it confines itself to Irish music needs a bit of argument - Comhaltas is a deeply nationalistic, deeply conservative organisation with a highly authoritarian governance structure and, while at grass roots it has some influence, its influence on Irish music in general has been pretty negative. As Breandán Breathnach said in 1978 "Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is an organisation with a great future behind it"