Oooh, have only just discovered this lovely thread!
I love Celtic/Irish music and indeed folk music in general. I have a modest collection: Loreena McKennit, Clannad, Van the Man (Van Morrison of course!), and yup, the Corrs. (They are FANTASTIC live).
I also like
Mary Black - famous Irish singer with a gorgeous voice.
Have you heard of
Runrig, Lalaith? Wonderful Scottish band. Their music is rock/ballad.
Moya Brennan, one of the Clannad singers, has brought out two Christian-themed albums over the last few years: 'Perfect Time' and 'Whisper to the Wild Waters'. Her latest, 'Two Horizons', is not Christian-themed but is a concept album. It's beautiful. (In fact it's playing on my CD player right now). More details HERE:
http://www.moyabrennan.com/TwoHorizons/
One of my favourite bands is a Christian group called
Iona, whose music is rock/jazz fusion. Not entirely unlike Clannad, but less ballad-y and more conceptual. I absolutely love their albums. Their female vocalist, Joanne Hogg, has a beautiful pure Irish voice. Clicky HERE:
http://www.iona.uk.com/newindex/2004_pages/home.htm
I was on holiday in County Donegal five years ago, and went to quite a few pubs where the local folks would have 'sessions', i.e. they'd bring along their guitars and flutes and violins and etcetera and just play traditional Irish reels, jigs and songs all night long. It was absolutely wonderful.
We just don't have that in England.
Maybe many, many generations ago something like it existed ... but not any more. We have a pub culture, right enough, but it's not a musical one.
I love Ireland and all things Irish. I'm not sure why, as I don't have Irish blood in me (as far as I know). Perhaps it's because my English birth-mother, whom I traced eight years ago, has lived in Ulster since the early 1960s (she moved from England to Ulster the year after she had me and gave me up for adoption). Perhaps it's because my adoptive father has Ulster blood in him. Whatever ... I love the North, and I love the Republic.