We do tend to spend too much time picking the green fluff from our navels, but that's understandable for a country which has only achieved statehood (and even that incomplete) within the lifetime of many still living.

When organised in the US, this kind of event - apart from the intellectual and cultural stimulation which it brings, and I note some outstandingly interesting names among the speakers listed - also plays a valuable role in a process which has been going on for much of the last thirty years at the instigation of the Irish Government: redirecting the interest and enthusiasm of sympathetic Americans away from ill-informed (and thus understandable) support for the "armed struggle" towards a more enlightened understanding of the reality of modern Ireland north and south. The NI peace is still very fragile, and that work must continue. It also provides an oppourtunity for the kind of political/business networking which has led to the US investment in Ireland which, for better or worse, largely fed the "celtic tiger".

America is moreover a mirror in which Ireland has long viewed itself, and the preservation and revival of both folksong and traditional instrumental music in Ireland throughout the 20th Century owes much to the respect with which it was treated in the US.