Sounds fine to me.
Be very grateful that you’ve got a host (publican, most likely), who’s willing to take the risk that no one will turn up and thus that there will be no music in his pub some weeks. Many aren’t, because of the impact on the takings for the night.
I agree that the generalizations in this thread should be regarded with some suspicion.
The paid session is not ubiquitious in Ireland, though it is dominant in many places - particularly cities and towns with a strong tourist trade. We went through a phase of multiple paid sessions locally in Skerries; eventually all died out for various reasons mostly having to do, IMO, with ‘expectation gaps’ on the part of both publicans and musicians. However, we now have multiple unpaid sessions here, and frankly they are more fun. My own feeling is that in every aspect but finance, the unpaid ones are better for the musicians and ‘the music’.
Ah, Skerries, I remember we went looking in vain for a disappeared session there one night (must have been in the ‘died out’ phase).
In answer to the previous, I think our (English) pub wouldn’t be too troubled exactly how much music gets played. It isn’t a performance or a theme pub and there’d be the usual crowd in drinking either way. Having said that there’s a few punters will come in for the tunes, and there’ll always be enough musicians to get something going (maybe a minimum of four or five, usually eight or nine, and a maximum of…who knows…?). But there’s no prior arrangement to see who’s coming, just part of the culture of the place. There might be a couple of players in early, around 8.30, and maybe a couple of tunes in the corner, a few more to get things started sometime after 9pm, maybe a few more by 10pm when we run out of seats, some people might leave by 11pm, and others carry on. It’s the way ITM should be so you were right that we’re lucky to have it. You’re welcome if you’re passing…