Smithsonian Folkways has put their collection of recordings from all over the place on line. You can purchase tracks or listen to samples, seach by location, culture, instrument, download liner notes. Much flute stuff to be found.
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/index.asp
Usual disclaimers, of course.
JS
This is a great website!! I only found 2 Irish whistle tracks, unfortunately, from an album called “Irish Music in Cleveland”!—but there is a huge amount of really interesting music there and I can’t wait to explore it. Thanks a lot. And it is such a well-designed, easy to use website as well.
Cynth, realise the search funstion (or the indexing) of the site leaves a bit to be desired. I was looking at the site a few weeks ago, some tracks would come up when searched under the musician’s name but not under the instrument played. Some musicians/instruments didn’t show up in straight searches but did appear in the list when browsing by geographical area. Throwing Ireland in with Northern Europe isn’t the most obvious choice either (it being Europe’s most western outpost afterall) and the the inclusion of both Scotland and the United Kingdom in the index is another somewhat odd choice.
FWIW, there are a few lovely Willie Clancy whistle tracks hidden in there (he appears as Willy or William Clancy, never Willie and a tune like the Shaskeen appears as the ‘Shakescone’ while the Rocks of Bawn appears as the Rocks of Bourne. Understandable mistake maybe but not ones that make for efficient searches).
Great stuff there if you put in the time finding it.
Oh, thanks! I will look harder or use more ways of searching. I was sort of surprised that the only Irish whistle music was from Cleveland! 
I hope I would have checked again. Thanks for the tunes you mentioned too—that gives me a start. I’m also looking forward to hearing clips of music that is totally foreign to me—a person doesn’t get the chance to do that very often. In fact, I’m just going there now. 
A search for “Clare” will turn up some good stuff, as will a search for “Irish Dance Music.”
Happy hunting.
Thanks