In April, I had the honour of attending a gathering of Irish traditional musicians in a quiet backwater of the Liffey, outside Newbridge, in Co Kildare. It happened in the converted mill where Steve Cooney, the eccentric and inspirational guitarist and music arranger, lives and works.

That afternoon, there was an impromptu session with Matt Cranitch, the Sliabh Luachra fiddler, Tr∅ona N∅ Dhomhnaill, who sang along to her keyboard perched on a chair, the Dingle woman Seosaimh∅n N∅ Bheaglaoich, who dug richly into songs such as An Buachail∅n Bβn, the intricate Westport harpist Laoise Kelly and the young Clare fiddler Michelle O'Brien, all accompanied by the guitarist Gavin Ralston and Cooney's drumrolling rhythms and baroque delicacy.

It was a festive occasion, but this was no fool's picnic. We were christening a new association of traditional musicians whose lofty ideals had been dreamt up by Cooney under the rubric of FACE: Fil∅, Amhrβnaithe agus Ceolt≤ir∅ na h╔ireann.

FACE's noble aspirations are set out in a dated-looking website, at www.e-tradnet.ie, embedded occasionally in Cooney's verse. FACE aims to help its members economically and to set up a complaints mechanism, a watchdog body on industry sharks, a law and contract library, an international tour-booking agency and a worldwide database of venues and promoters. It also plans to ballot its members online on key issues.

It is hard to fault FACE's plans to charitably disburse funds to elderly members, or to bargain collectively for everything from booking fees to pension and health-insurance schemes. Cooney also floated the idea of a credit union - and even of diplomatic relations with the best flute and pipe bands in Northern Ireland.

FACE has, as yet, no administrative structure or constitution. Cooney and Laoise Kelly borrowed £9,000 to invest in four laptops and a website that hosts an e-mail network. Membership is free, and fund-raising has so far brought in only a few hundred pounds.

But FACE has struck a chord. It will soon release a three-CD compilation of tracks donated by members, among them Mary Black, Donal Lunny, Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, Tr∅ona N∅ Dhomhnaill, Peadar ╙ Riada, Kevin Glackin, Iarla ╙ Lionβird, ┴ine ╙ Cheallaigh, Cathal ╙ Searcaigh (who has given a poem) and Vinnie Kilduff. Liam ╙ Maonlai's new album will be FACE's next release.

The organisation's 130-strong membership is a who's who of past masters and young bloods: Martin Hayes, Alan Kelly, Arty McGlynn, Brendan Begley, Cathal Hayden, Cran, Declan Sinnot, Dezi Donnelly, Dolores Keane, Donal Murphy, Frankie Gavin, Gerry O'Connor, Josephine Marsh, K∅la, Liz Doherty, Mβire Breatnach, Marcus Hernon, Michael McGoldrick, Niamh Parsons, Paddy Keenan, Paul McGrattan, Susan McKeown, Tommy Hayes - it goes on and on.

Now, in a postal ballot that closed on Tuesday, FACE is fielding four candidates for election to the board of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), which collects music royalties from broadcasters and venues on behalf of composers, songwriters and music publishers. The group's candidates are Lunny, ╙ Maonlai, the fine low-whistler Cormac Breatnach and Noel Hill, master of the concertina.

Although IMRO welcomed the arrival of FACE, there has been some internal exasperation at the new organisation's calls for more efficient repatriation of royalties for Irish traditional musicians, with some at IMRO claiming FACE's declarations have at times been "uninformed".

It is true that, at one stage, FACE overambitiously suggested setting up a new collection agency, and its election manifesto includes a peculiar call to "help establish a mechanism to include traditional musicians in the distribution of royalties collected from their local traditional venues".

But IMRO's rules and regulations are difficult to grapple with, as is copyright law in general, to say nothing of the notion of "intellectual property" within an oral tradition. Under the Berne Convention, to which IMRO adheres, traditional musicians are entitled to full royalties on their arrangements of traditional tunes, as though they had composed them, a position vigorously supported by innovative, improvisational musicians such as Hill and Breatnach.

When they record new versions of old tunes, they register the tracks with IMRO as "trad arr", which is to say the songs are in the public domain but have been arranged by the tunesmith. Sometimes, mistakes are made. Breatnach once registered a tune by Connie O'Connell, the west Cork fiddler, as trad arr, but has since rectified his error.

"There have been genuine mistakes, as well as deliberate ones," says Lunny. "Some musicians have credited themselves with all sorts of things, and the whole system of registration needs to be addressed."

The FACE candidates are keen to overhaul the IMRO registration system, perhaps calling in the Irish Traditional Music Archive. They suggest digitally tagging every registered track, so electronic monitors can log them.

One fact on which FACE and IMRO agree is that, sadly, a huge proportion of Irish royalty payments leave the country, because most music broadcast in Ireland is American and British. The FACE candidates even propose the establishment of a radio station dedicated to Irish music - of all kinds, not just trad.

"Most broadcast Irish material tends to be from the heavily promoted pop camp of U2, Westlife, Boyzone, Samantha Mumba and so on, while the other 95 per cent of music composed and recorded here never actually surfaces," says Lunny.

FACE also calls for IMRO to be more representative of its membership. But even in this election, there is a steeply hierarchical voting structure, based on royalty earnings.

Of IMRO's 3,165 members, 2,330 are bottom-rung, provisional members who have only one vote. There are 602 associate members with 10 votes each, 177 full members with 50 votes each and a top layer of 56 big earners with 100 votes each.

IMRO does not publish in its accounts royalty payments to artists, nor circulate them to members. The FACE candidates call for an opening up of IMRO - to its members, other musicians and the public - with a view to making it more accountable. They also query aspects of IMRO's board-confidentiality policy, when the board is meant to be answerable to the members who elected it.

It is not mentioned in FACE election literature, but all four candidates are deeply curious about the agreement signed by Shay Hennessy, IMRO's then chairman, and Labhrβs ╙ Murch·, the director-general of Comhaltas Ceolt≤ir∅ ╔ireann, in December 1998. In the agreement, IMRO issued Comhaltas Ceolt≤ir∅ ╔ireann with a blanket licence for all its centres and non-broadcast functions in return for an annual fee of £1,000, for the lifetime of both organisations.

This is a very low figure, considering the number of branches the organisation has on both sides of the Border, although it also acknowledges the huge contribution the body has made to the revival of traditional music.

The agreement also included five annual grants of £50,000 to Comhaltas from January 1999, however, and five annual subventions of £25,000 to Br· Bor·, the Cashel branch of Comhaltas headed by ╙ Murch·'s wife, ┌na. The total IMRO grant to Comhaltas over five years amounts to £375,000.

The agreement also stipulated that IMRO would now "refer all requests for support to traditional Irish music to Comhaltas".

But IMRO's chief executive, Adrian Gaffney, says IMRO has subsidised other trad initiatives, such as the Fiddle Fair in Baltimore, Co Cork, the TG4 National Traditional Music Award, the Willie Clancy Summer School and the Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award.

Nevertheless, one has to query the thinking behind such a large IMRO subvention to one organisation. The agreement between the two groups stipulates that, each year, Comhaltas must give IMRO details of projects funded by the grant. These are due to be announced at the next IMRO annual general meeting.

Labhrβs ╙ Murch· says Comhaltas has forwarded its annual reviews to IMRO. He says the money has gone towards the development of Comhaltas's education programme, music-teacher training, music classes, scholarships to Scoil ╔igse and operating the grading system agreed with the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

The agreement between the two groups also states that Comhaltas would support IMRO's submission to the then Copyright Bill, which has, since its enactment, strengthened IMRO's hand considerably. In his speech at IMRO's 1999 annual general meeting, Hennessy welcomed the new "co-operation" with Comhaltas, which had been recognised by government.

Elsewhere, Hennessy referred to Comhaltas's large constituency in the US, where, apparently, Comhaltas agreed to support IMRO's pursuit of royalties due from the widespread public airing of Irish music in tens of thousands of pubs - which represents a loss to Irish rights-holders conservatively estimated in millions of dollars.

The EU successfully took a case for IMRO against the US at the World Trade Organization in 1996. But US legislators have dragged their feet on enacting new legislation, even though the official deadline is today. The US has asked for an extension, to consider compensation terms.

It seems the Americans are doing what suits them best on the world stage, and in such a lax copyright environment, it is debatable what help Comhaltas can offer. Many of its US members adhere to the view ╙ Murch· has consistently asserted in his editorials in Treoir: that you cannot copyright Irish traditional music.

Steve Cooney is adamant that FACE is not in the game of bashing Comhaltas. Indeed, Micheβl ╙ hEidh∅n, Comhaltas's long-time education adviser, is a member of FACE. "We want to work in a general spirit of harmonious co-operation, says Cooney, "and we want Comhaltas members to join FACE. We all need to work together as allies."

FACE's e-mail address is cabhair@e-tradnet.ie; its postal address is An Muileann, Victoria Bridge, Nβs na R∅ogh, Co Chill Dara