Standard or short scale tenors are equally good for irish style, the shorter the scale the heavier guage strings as a rule. standard irish tuning is 1stE, 2ndA,3rdD and fourth G, some players do use jazz tuning but like you they have to capot a lot more. I play a short scale Vega with medium guage strings E12, A18, D28, G38 and it sounds great.
Cheers, Dave