"well isn't that for the individual musician?"

Maybe, but rookie musicians who try to learn Irish tunes from dots don't get it right. They are anxious to build their repertoire quickly and that is simply not how the great players of the past who we treasure so much did it. And, in my opinion, that fast-track method really shows. I know hundreds of tunes but I'm seventy-odd and have been doing it for ever. I CAN learn a tune effectively from dots, but I rarely do. Irish tunes are not dots. There's variation, there's lift, there's lilt and there's ornamentation and other intangibles, integral to the music and not bolt-ons, and highly personal. None of those are in notation or tablature, yet they ARE the tune. It all gets into your head when you've done a ton of listening. Nothing else works properly.