All of those are failings but

"none of those are built into the nature of the instrument"
Oh come on Jim! We are playing dance tunes - f*cking dance tunes. Tunes that have been kept alive for hundreds of years because people dance to them. Drums of all sorts have been an integral part of dance music for ever.

"and none, as far as I know have organised themselves into a cult bent on the destruction of Irish music". - Now that is genuinely funny! 10 out of 10 for sarcastic exageration and wit.

I don't know what proportion of Irish groups have Bod players but it hasn't done The Chieftains or Dervish any harm.

"have watched these bloody eejits waltzing into a session with a cheap drum and stick after a couple of weeks' "practice," thinking that they're the dog's-bollocks heartbeat of the music?"

Fully accepted Steve and I guess the shrinking violets who cannot say what they are going to play, speak to other people or maybe smile and be f*cking socialable are too shy to find a quiet or even load way to advise the Bod Cults of the errors?

Just remember: first they came for the Bodists................. I didn't complain because I was not a Bodist. Then they came for the ................