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I'm not familiar with all the bands mentioned so far, but certainly most are on the button.
If you're after songs, then the Clancy Bros or Dubliners are good examples of the style. More modern examples would be artists like Christy Moore, Four Men and a Dog, Paul Brady, Pogues. Incidentaly Paul Brady has done some work with an excellent guitarist called Arty McGlynn. Artie played country ( with a Tele) before moving into traditional music, and is well worth a listen.
The guitar as such hasn't a big history in irish music before '60s. predominant instruments have been fiddle & banjo (4 string variety) also flute and accordian.
Music is mainly reels, jigs, hornpipes, set dances, and its easy to see the bluegrass links if you listen to it a while. Theres the "session" type, where a group will play (frequently in pub) with little or no prior practice. Some of the later groups have captured this style - Planxty & to some extent the Chieftains. Chieftains have crossed into so many genres. You tube features many artists with them - Van Morrison, Earl Scruggs, many many more.
The other side of the music is the ceili band, which is more formal, for dancing. Typically accordian, drums, fiddle, banjo, sometimes flute & piano, would have been traditional. You Tube search for ceili band will give you some good examples. Look out for Gallowglass, Temple House, Sean Norman as names. If you see the spelling Ceilidh, thats scottish, and the music is very similar.
I started off playing ceili style music on a mandolin (my hands were too small for anything else at 9 ) probably with the idea of playing banjo eventually. Moved to guitar at 12, and took a lot of the music with me. Always found traditional music great as a warm up, and some bands I played in would have featured a few in the set.
Like most other music, theres so many angles to it, and would need a while to get the feel of it. If you try the names suggested on Y T & follow a few of the links, you should get a fair cross section of the stuff.
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