Hi Axman664, Here are a couple of books with CD's I've found most valuable '130 Great Irish Ballads' and '110 Ireland's Best Session Tunes'. I'll put the publishing info below. As a neophyte, freshwater celt I've learned a ton from these two books. They contain great 'pub songs' ala The Clancy Bros. as well as plenty of session standards. They both have CDs with the verse/chorus should they differ and on the session tunes part A/B should 'they' differ. As far as bands I'd recommend checking out Silly Wizard, the Bothy Band, Patrick Street, the Pogues, Planxty and Craobh Rua(pronounced Crave RU-ah) as starting points. Here's the publishing info:

130 Great Irish Ballads-Music Ireland, 61 Grosvenor Square, Dublin 6, Ireland - Book/CD

110 Ireland Best session Tunes-Walton Music, Inc., P.O. Box 874, New York, NY 10009 - Book/CD (There's a whole series of these including, fiddle tunes, tin whistle tunes, slow airs, etc. all published by Walton Music.)

There's, also a great website that's got melodies/lyrics from folksongs all over Europe. Its webb address is http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/folkindx.htm