There have been many threads on "beginning folk guitar" and "fingerpicking right-hand technique," etc., etc., but none (to my knowledge) specifically on applying fingerpicking techniques to Irish rebel songs.

I am surrupticiously surfing Mudcat at work, and so don't have the time or inclination to dig out up some of my old posts where I compiled links to multiple threads on the above topics. I'll try to find them and add them to this thread later or over the weekend.

Oak Publications, as mentioned above, is a great source for fingerpicking instruction, as are Stephen Grossman and Happy Traum's Homespun Tapes. All of these outfits started out with print-only materials back in the 1960s, but later evolved to offer audio tapes and then videos, always with complementary booklets. I realize that many people seem to be "tablature-challenged," but when you have a video to look at along with a booklet of tabs, you really should be able to start understanding the basic concept. (It's not rocket science!)

A live in-person teacher is always a great idea, but not everyone has access to the right teacher for their particular interests, and not everyone can pay for enough lessons to make much of a difference. Learning how to learn from the books and tapes/disks can be extremely helpful.

Most of the fingerpicking guides I know about tend to be centered upon American folk genres, specifically country blues and (for the more advanced) ragtime, but once you learn a bit of the technique, you can apply it to any and every genre of song.