Interesting piece in The Irish Times quoting Ed Sheeran - small extract:

There's a strong presence of his much-reported Irish background on the album too, so our attention quickly turns to Galway Girl, a céilí-inspired tale of a "Galway girl and the perfect night", with added musicality from Belfast-based Beoga.

(snip)

The nod to Ireland doesn't end there. In the album's deluxe version, we'll also hear Nancy Mulligan, a quintessential trad song about his Wexford-based grandparents' marriage despite their Catholic-Protestant divide. Even more trad songs were recorded, but they didn't make the final cut.
"I was angling for this to be a trad album," Sheeran says. "I've always wanted to make one, and I recorded about six or seven songs for this. But it only ended up being two of them.
"I grew up on Planxty and The Chieftains, and I really like Irish music. I don't think enough people use it in pop music. For some reason it's considered twee and old, but it's such exciting, youthful music, it should be at the forefront of pop culture. Hopefully if these songs are successful, more people will do a bit more like it."