From what I have noticed, as long as you're playing an instrument suitable to Irish music, and as long as you are playing it with some semblance of understanding, it doesn't matter how flimsy your connection to being Irish might be.
I have no known connection to Irish culture in my family. We didn't grow up listening to Irish music in the house. I probably didn't even hear Irish trad until I was 30 years old on my first visit to Ireland and saw Yvonne Casey, Eoin O'Neill and Quentin Cooper play in McDermott's Pub Doolin.
When I finally did start playing a musical instrument a couple years later I didn't necessarily choose tenor banjo with the knowledge that it is used in Irish music, or even with the goal of playing Irish traditional music on it. I chose it for other reasons like my being left-handed, that you use a plectrum and not your fingers, the scale length between mandolin and guitar, the logic of the 5ths tuning, its relative obscurity, and the Americana nature of the banjo.
I eventually adapted to the idea of using tenor banjo to flat-pick Irish basic versions of instrumental tunes. I have never been able to hear a chord change in my life, only melody, so I honed in on playing the only type of music I was capable of: the melody line.
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| Welsh singer Tom Jones playing fiddle |
Irish trad is unison melody music. That's why it suits me. You play the tune in unison with the other melody instruments. I'd be OK with bringing in melodies from jazz, klezmer and calypso and treating those the same way but unfortunately that's not how it works!
To the original point. If you learn the etiquette and are making an effort to learn the tunes and get them up to speed, then you'll be fine. Don't wait around until you are good enough. I didn't. If I was waiting until I was good enough I'd still be waiting.
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