Oh! That is beautiful!
I don’t know that I could handle the oboe reed.
Is it Alan that makes those?
My first post here after lurking for some time.
Oboe reeds are difficult to make, and to be good need to be made to suit the instrument and player.
They (the reeds) do not last - oboists who play alot are constantly working on reeds. The water, saliva, gunk etc destroy a reed fairly quickly.
Good bought ones can be Ok.
Plastic - don’t bother, you can’t fix them either because they have already scraped too far (this is oldish information but I believe is still true - if anyone has a good source of plastic reeds I’d love a back up plastic reed I could count on.)
Oboe is not an easy instrument to learn, but well worth it and slow aires on an English Horn are beautiful.
I’ve never played an “Irish oboe” - so no comment
I would repeat, just so that you know what you are getting into, that oboe is difficult to play - considered one of the hardest instruments to learn.
Bill
Breton “piston” - a low pitched bombarde (Breton shawm), would be an option - most good bombarde makers do them. Jonathan Shorland (formerly a member of Fernhill) makes, or used to, and plays his own “pastoral oboes” in various keys that are a kind of easier to blow version of a Baroque oboe designed for folk use, similar to a piston… I don’t know if he’s making them to sell currently, though. You can hear them being played on the first two Fernhill albums. Don’t really sound like U. Pipes, though, more like a softer, meatier, lower pitched bombarde. All the cautions about reeds already mentioned would of course apply.
Baroque oboe fingering would be tolerably similar to whistle - they are “in D” (6 finger note = D, straight off scale = D) - Baroque oboists were often expected to double on flute due to the similarity of fingering. They are also less high pressure to play than modern orchestral oboes (or standard bombardes), though still a lot tougher than flute! You can get repro Baroque oboes in modern pitch as well as historically accurate pitches - just like repro Baroque flutes.
Check out Moeck’s website for some of the instruments others have mentioned above, and The Early Music Shop.
That reed intensity level sounds very much like good prep for the Uilleann Pipes. 
Do baroque oboes, shawns etc overblow to the second octave?
I would repeat, just so that you know what you are getting into, that oboe is difficult to play - considered one of the hardest instruments to learn.
Considered?! Those who say that have never tried the pipes! (I kid, I kid…)
same problem…double reeds & wonky fingerings
I believe (don’t play 'em, so little direct knowledge save some face-exploding on a cheap Chinese bombarde a few years back!) that they do go into the 2nd 8ve with a good reed and good reed technique. I know strictly trad treble (Bb) bombarde playing only uses a 9th like the GH pipes, but modern advanced technique goes much further. I think at least some of these things have a speaker thumb-hole or key to ease the 2nd 8ve. Youenn Le Bihan is a partner in flute and bombarde makers Skopavel (website in English) as well as being one of Britanny’s top bombarde sonneurs. There’s a good discourse on bombardes (in French) here, including contact info for makers.
One of the main woodwind suppliers/makers in Brittany (including “our” kind of flutes and low whistles) rarely mentioned on C&F is Hervieux & Glet whose website (also in French) is quite informative and interesting - look at the “Lombardes”, alto bombardes which probably pretty much do what you want, or the oboes in D - there’s one with an octave key and a key for Cnat for under E700 (underU$1000)!
I think I have to stop reading this thread. 
Bombardes, shawms, baroque oboes, irish oboes, etc etc. Could put a whole new spin on WHoA!
Focus, focus, focus…
For a bit of Bombarde, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL-wpkM--e0&feature=related