Well, I wouldn’t do it now, but having spent the night in a home made shelter of sticks and bracken, getting woken by deer and poked in the back by kids I probably wasn’t thinking straight.
Just think, I could have still been whistling now if I could have got a decent note out of it, the fairies would never let me go.
By the way, I am a Real lady, rather than a man.
Oop.. pardon. Blasted Internet needs a quick m/f indicator next to everyone’s name… 
Metronome can’t teach you that kinda phrasing. But even in Irish music, the beats are all even- each four note piece of a reel, or three note piece of a jig, will be the same length as other pieces in the same tune.
So what a metronome can teach you is how to play those beats evenly with each other. So obviously, you don’t want any clicks or beeps going inside the beats- this is different (I think) from how a classical player would use a metronome. For example, in a jig, don’t have it playing six beats a measure, ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX, just have it play two: ONE…TWO… (or ONE…FOUR… if you like) and fill in the blanks with actual notes.
To learn what goes inside the beats, you gotta play along with actual players; but a metronome is useful for what it’s useful, if you use it right.