83 of the 185 tunes have a home note of D. (45%)
47 of the 185 tunes have a home note of G. (25%)
28 of the 185 tunes have a home note of A. (15%)
24 of the 185 tunes have a home note of E. (13%)
3 of the 185 tunes have a home note of B. (2%)
Of the 83 "D" tunes, 62 have 2 sharps and 21 have 1 sharp.
Of the 47 "G" tunes, 46 have 1 sharp and 1 has 2 sharps.
Of the 28 "A" tunes, 23 have 1 sharp and 5 have 2 sharps.
Of the 24 "E" tunes, 13 have 2 sharps and 11 have 1 sharp.
Of the 3 "B" tunes, all 3 have 2 sharps.
I'm a little surprised that no 3 sharps (A-major), 0 sharps (D-dorian) or 1 flat (G-dorian) tunes were included. However, the reason that tunes in 1 or 2 sharps dominate might be because tin whistles, flutes and pipes are basically D instruments and most lack a G# key which is needed for tunes in A major. So, Irish tunes that resolve to A tend to have a G natural due to the lack of the G# note on some of the important instruments.

The Irish repertoire isn't quite as restricted as these findings seem to indicate, as I know there are gems in F and C waiting to be found. However, the basic repertoire does primarily consist of tunes with home notes of D, G, A and E. For me, since I'm fairly new to the tradition and haven't yet developed a keen ear, being able to make educated guesses about the likelihood of a tune's tonal center can help me narrow things down in a session setting. Guessing that a tune is in D is like answering B on a multiple choice question. The law of averages, I suppose.
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