djm,
I fail to see your point about Riverdance 
. My remarks are based on conversations with Seamus Ennis, Liam O’Flynn, Joe Heaney and other noteable pipers and singers, all of whom hold this opinion. The one good thing about knowing dance is that you know what a good dance tempo is. To me, there is no comparison between your suggestion and what I was talking about.
Ted
Ted, relax. I agree with you 100% re. playing Irish airs as if singing them, albeit via the chanter instead of one’s own voice.
All I meant to convey was my dismay for the daunting task of learning Irish. I have made no headway whatsoever in this direction, although it is pretty obvious that learning to speak Irish is a basic requirement to learning to sing Irish in order to be able to play Irish airs with a modicum of competency.
Of course, there is an attractive alternative: stick to jigs and reels, and let the harp players put on airs. 
djm
I don’t know any Irish either, beyond “sagart,” “donn,” “dubh,” words from song titles mostly. But I DO try to aquire recordings of the songs I play, and emulate the singer’s approach, phrasing, and so forth; and to try and keep the singer’s version of the tune in my head as I play. One thing no one has mentioned is that the pipe chanter seems to have the inflections of the sean nos singer built into it, whether by accident or design no one knows; but certain of its characteristics, removing the chanter from the knee to swell on notes, or stopping the sound temporarily to imitate the singer’s pause for breath, emulate singing like no other instrument can; even the best playing on fiddle or flute never quite has this vocal flavor that piping can have. Remember that for the longest time, up until the early 20th century, there were pipers who played airs exclusively, along with marches, descriptive pieces, and the like.
Kevin, excellent input. Do you have any suggestions for CDs of sean-nós singers? (please, just stuff that is readily available)
Thx,
djm
Ossian’s Grand Airs of Connemara tapes are wonderful, they have three great singers and Festy Conlon playing the whistle as well. RTE’s Amhrain ar an Sean-Nos has a broader coverage, singers from the various Gaeltacht regions of Ireland. I haven’t picked that one up, yet, myself. The Come West Along the Road video has wonderful singing and playing of all sorts, if you like Irish music of whatever kind, new or old, that’s a must own. The best Joe Heaney would be the 2CD Road to Connemara, it has introductions and translations to the songs, stories, great bio, etc. Phillipe Varlet’s CelticGrooves has many excellent import only items for those in the states, then there’s Ossian USA.
For pipers (that’s us!), have a listen to the 4 tracks in the middle of Seamus Ennis’s Return from Fingal, where he sings a song and then plays it on the pipes.