The ceilidh was origionaly a gathering of music, dance, song and storytelling. We in the UK used to have Country Dances and Barn dances but with the coming of country music from the USA and Line dancing most of the people, including agents, who didn't know about folk music and dancing, thought country dancing was dancing to country music like line dancing. My agent used to send us, as a ceilidh band, to clubs where they expected cowboys. In recent years we have addopted the name ceilidh for barn dances and country dances to distinguish them from Line dances.
Bill