Frank ~ whenever I play Irish tunes they seem to work best with the tenor banjo.
However there are some Irish tunes that do lend themselves to the clawhammer style.
"Coleraine" works out nicely in "G" modal tuning.
"Little Beggerman" works in standard "G" tuning.

For the melodic style tunes like "Flowers of Edinburgh", "Irish Washerwoman", "Philadelphia Hornpipe". "Sailors Hornpipe" are a lot of fun.

I use the Fred Kelly picks when playing the melodic and bluegrass style. They seem to work better for me than the regular metal finger picks. The sound I prefer for clawhammer and frailing styles are the fingernails.

If you have a friend who plays melodic style there is a wonderful little book by Harold Streeter "IRISH JIGS FOR MELODIC STYLE 5 STRING BANJO" arranged for solo and duet. Melodic duets have a great sound and are a lot of fun to play. The book may be hard to find these days.

Cap't Bob