If you have no experience of Ireland Malcolm, then why are you commenting upon it? The problem I have with yours and Peter's posting is that you have this annoying tendency to speak as if your experience in the UK should be considered the universal standard to which all other music be compared. I call that an imperial mindset. You in particular seem to never be at a loss for making questionable comments, laden with your British value judgments, about the Irish people and the Irish music scene. You appear pretty bigoted to me in that regard.

It is not at all uncommon to hear such subtle anti-Irish sentiments among the English folk cognates, who begrudge the Irish folk their well-deserved musical successes of the past decade because Irish music, for the first time in music history, surpassed Anglo folk music in popularity among the unwashed masses of North America, Europe and certain parts of Asia. Unfortunately, the arrogant elitism of the imperial British session has carried over into the session scenes elsewhere in Europe and North America. It matters not one iota if you think that describing the session as an extension of empire is further than most people would go. Any musicologist worth their salt who has made a serious study of the music traditions of those islands knows this, and your protestations to the contrary will not change that.