Two tunes that bore me to tears are ‘The Butterfly’ which i do play along as not being rude and ‘The wise maid’ which i use as an excuse to go for another pint or to ..relieve myself..
I guess I made the mistake of thinking that the words in red would have taken care of any misunderstanding. 
Not when you could just about do the same to the song! 
A disturbing thought.
It’s probably because I’m too used to hearing it murdered as an Irish jig.
Personally I only learn tunes that I like, but I have found that tunes I may have disliked 5 years ago, later grew on me and I now like them. I used to dislike reels, cant remember why but now I find myself looking for the more challenging reels and giving them a go.
What? All reels? I find that there isn’t a category of tunes that I don’t like - I like something of every tune type. And I haven’t even particularly any favourite categories. I happily play reels, polkas, jigs, hornpipes, barndances, marches, waltzes, mazurkas, redowas, military twosteps, slip jigs, single jigs, slides, hop jigs, airs and one or two tunes not covered in that list.
In fact, really, as I said, there are only two tunes I just can’t bring myself to play, one of which is a jig and one a reel.
I think you’re absolutely right though, accordionstu, that tunes that you (I) didn’t like at one time then grow on you (me). I usually find that this is because I hear a good player playing them and I suddenly understand what the tune’s about. Believe it or not, I didn’t used to like The Woman of the House until I heard a good fluter playing it. I love the tune now. 
I didn’t get reels as much as I did with other trad music, having played button accordion for years, I preferred the jaunty Hornpipes and these travelled well onto the flute. I am enjoying reels more now but when i hear some players playing them so ridiculously fast, i just switch off because the tune is lost in a fog of notes and isn’t enjoyable anymore.
I will give the Woman of the house a try , what would you recommend to go with it Ben?
Try The Bank of Ireland before it. That pairing has a provenance, as it used to be played so by Bobby Casey, IIRC. Besides, The Bank of Ireland is a cracking tune on wind instruments. A real winner.
There are a lot of notes in it though. Or there were, before the recession.
Oh. H-h-h[I can hardly laugh, I’m hyper-ventilating]a-ha-ha[oh stop, my sides are splitting]-ha-h-h
Yes, sorry about that one, it’s one of Jackie Daly’s standard comments. When we used to play for the sets on sundays he always said that when we played that tune, must have heard it hundreds of times so it comes with [groan] [/groan] tags thoroughly attached. But I can’t help thinking of it as soon as the tune is mentioned.
Fair enough. If a joke’s good enough for Jacky Daly …
I have always hated polkas. Like despised. Usually when I don’t like a tune or a genre of tune it’s either because my strongest recollection of it is a horrible rendition I heard somewhere or because I don’t understand it. I have an agreement with my piping instructor that we will work on tunes I like some of the time, but other times he’ll introduce me to tunes that I don’t like, and would never choose to learn on my own. A month or so ago, he taught me three polkas, and after diligently working on them I have discovered that if you can make them swing properly they are quite fun to play. One I still don’t care much for, but the other two are a blast. I show off my new-found polka literacy whenever I have a chance.
The Irish Washerwoman was mentioned above as a totally cringeworthy tune. I heard David Power play it at a house concert a few years back and he made it new. I think that if a performer can bring something new and interesting to it even the most cliché-ridden tune becomes enjoyable. David also had the guts to record Gary Owen and again produced a thoroughly enjoyable performance.
Thanks benhall, I had a crack at those two tunes last night and they do sound great together, not sure if my playing does them justice but i might record them and post later.