As Peter Laban suggested, it's not easy to see the focus here! It's certainly unusual to see Arty McGlynn and, say, Ruby Murray, in the same list....

Rather surprisingly (unless I overlooked it) Peter has not yet mentioned Willie Clancy, a hugely celebrated piper and whistler from Clare.

Seamus Kennedy, no less, has nominated Sean McGuire and I cannot endorse that too strongly. Two reasons: he played in an exceptionally distinctive style, admittedly not to every traditionalist's taste, and he was regionally rooted, specifically in Belfast. Also inextricably associated with Belfast, and worthy of consideration: the McPeake family, of which there is quite a lot on vinyl.

And from Co Wicklow, but by no means rooted since he and his family were travellers, there is johnny Doran, who before being incapacitated by a freak accident in the late 1940s was rated by some as the finest piper in Ireland. You might enjoy trying to track down the one LP he ever made. It's rare, and I've never found it. (His brother Felix, also a piper - as their father was too - is to be heard on a Nigel Denver LP from around 1965 - Rebellion? - and possibly elsewhere.)