A. As Fintan O’Toole says, “If ever there was a formula for making Irish music penitential, the artistic equivalent of salted herring on a Friday, this was it. The result, not surprisingly, was that the more exotic the music, the better it must be.”
B. Like the Irish language, it belonged to a cultural tradition that was associated with oppression and poverty, a past that many people in the middle of the twentieth century wanted to forget.
C. From the suburbs of Dublin to the most isolated corners of Co. Kerry, those who had the ability played for the sheer love of it, usually gathering in somebody’s house and often playing till dawn. But while there was fervent interest, it lacked organisation.
D. They opened the eyes of the unenlightened to the realisation that their musical heritage was not something to be despised as unsophisticated and old-fashioned but an inherent part of their culture that they could both enjoy and be proud of.
E. At best it was barely tolerated céilí band music played on accordions with the inappropriate backing of a piano; at worst it was considered a form of low-life entertainment indulged in by ‘tinkers’, that distinctive and controversial breed of travelling people whose life and culture is another story.
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