GUEST,RJM, I agree completely with that. (Note: I'm not a guitarist, and I am just a self-taught player, so ignore me if you want. LOL)

In our session group there are two guitarists and both of them don't seem to "get" the rhythm of most of the tunes. One of them tries to play accompaniments which are not bog-standard strumming which is ok, but what he plays and what the rest of us are playing quite often does not work together. Sometimes it seems like he is playing a completely different tune. The other guitarist is less confident so s/he strums according to the time signature. Three strums per bar for 3/4, four strums per bar for 4/4 etc. That definitely does not work for a lot of our Irish tunes. When it was suggested - by myself and others - to listen to the rhythm of the tune, we were told, "No, I don't listen to the tune".

This is just me but as an example, some of the tunes on our tune list, including this one make me feel that there is one main beat for each bar, with ornamentation around that one beat:

Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch - John Cunningham

Some of the "one beat to the bar" tunes in my head remind me of hurdy-gurdy tunes with that big first beat (turn of the handle) at the beginning of each bar, especially French tunes.