Now he’s gone all sheepish! But that’s the REAL Welsh for you (Wales, where men are men and sheep are worried…).
Rabbit would be more likely, though.
The funny thing is that there really isn’t such a thing as an “Irish Flute” or “Celtic Flute”. The name is a misnomer.
What we commonly refer to as Irish Flutes are actually the British and American made orchestral flutes of the mid to late 19th century, and modern made copies based on these originals. These original orchestral flutes were not intended for Irish music, but were adopted for this use in the late 19th and early 20th century onward.
Its really only the crop of modern makers of these flutes (myself included) who are making these specifically for Celtic music.
One modern adaptation has been to render the flute in simpler terms - commonly keyless, and in many cases rendered just out of wood, without any addition of tuning slides for affordability and simplicity. Much of the music is played in D and G. Consequently there has been an explosion of people playing this instrument. The present day is really the “Good Ol’ Times” for this instrument, not some time in the past.
What an Irish flute should look like then, is open to interpretation. Its sort of like asking “what should a guitar look like”? Some may believe that a Martin Dreadnaught or a Classical Guitar is sort of the only standard and the only way a guitar should look. These are just recent waypoints in the guitar’s evolution. The guitar is still evolving. Look at some of the great work by modern luthiers such as Fred Carlson ( see http://www.beyondthetrees.com/dread.htm ) or Shelley Park (see http://www.parkguitars.com/guitar-gallery/ - I am very fortunate to have one of hers ).
To see what an “Irish Flute” should look like - simply look at the websites and pictures of the flutes of various modern makers such as McGee, Healy, Grinter, Olwell, myself, etc. What you see is what an Irish flute should look like.
Casey
…and M&E, which, I suppose, brings you back full circle.
Which is what I meant but hadn’t time to explain in my somewhat abrupt and not-a-little flippant first post in this thread. Well put, Casey.
I thought a genuine irish flute to be orange, white and green in broad stripes, with a shamrock comming out of one end and a tuft of red hair and some praties out the other. 
Thank you everyone for your great answers. Both the explaining, the serious, the humorous and the “so what! what others think!” I could use it all. True, it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as the sound is right. I have just had a bad experience once when I bought a Sweetheart low d irish whistle. It has the nicest tone and looks sooo nice. And then someone asked me “what kind of recorder is it you play?” I can’t stand the recorder, no offense to those who can play it, it’s just my personal opinion since I can’t seem to understand how to play it And that made me think “DO’H!” inside. So I just didn’t wanted to experience that again 
Think I’ll just go for a R&R keyless type…still have to decide whether it should be with or without tuning slide as I won’t be playing in any sessions in Norway. And then just get the pieces that suits me.
Thank you all and sorry if the question was strange or put strangely. I’m after all just a danish guy
More likely someone will ask you about your “clarinet”.
I played a mandolin at a dinner party a few years ago. Several people came up to me afterwards and asked what instrument I was playing. Was it a little guitar, they asked? I felt like saying, my G_d, man, it’s a man-dolin. Everybody knows what a mandolin is, surely. Actually, the truth is that many people haven’t a clue about musical instruments that we are so accustomed to that we don’t even stop to think that we are in a minority. My dad played the radio, and that suited him just fine. He preferred tunes that he recognized, nothing new. He also thought that Lawrence Welk was great.
If you ever think that keys might be in your future, you may want to ask whether the flutes can be fitted with pin mounted keys later.
That’s happened to me with a Clare whistle. Green mouthpiece, brass tube, can’t get much more pennywhistle-looking. IOW, there’s very little you can do about others’ ignorance.
Ohhhhh yes 
Bryan Bowers (perhaps the best known autoharp player) tells of someone calling a concert venue and asking what Mr. Bowers would be playing. The person answering the phone replied, “Autoharp”. There was a pause and the caller asked, disbelievingly, “Auto parts?”
Ain’t no accounting for the knowledge of musical instruments by the general public.
Best wishes.
Steve
[quote=“mr.thomasschmidt”]Thank you everyone for your great answers. Both the explaining, the serious, the humorous and the “so what! what others think!” I could use it all. True, it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as the sound is right. I have just had a bad experience once when I bought a Sweetheart low d irish whistle. It has the nicest tone and looks sooo nice. And then someone asked me “what kind of recorder is it you play?” I can’t stand the recorder, no offense to those who can play it, it’s just my personal opinion since I can’t seem to understand how to play it And that made me think “DO’H!” inside. So I just didn’t wanted to experience that again
Think I’ll just go for a R&R keyless type…still have to decide whether it should be with or without tuning slide as I won’t be playing in any sessions in Norway. And then just get the pieces that suits me.
quote]
Don’t EVER go by what someone with no knowledge of wooden/Irish flutes thinks - I’ve had my keyless called a “bass fife” by someone once, and “what kind of clarinet is that?” is an old standard stupid comment if you have silver keys. An Irish flute is generally the wooden conical-bore flute that Irish music is played on. It can be either modern or antique, keyless (always modern), de-keyed (antique or modern, with non-functioning keys, or plugged key holes), or fully or partially keyed (antique or modern). You rarely need keys if you’re only playing Irish trad, in spite of earlier descriptions/definitions; they’re great, but “extra” keys lead to playing non-trad music on the wooden flute - nothing wrong with that, but it certainly doesn’t make it a “more Irish” flute. I do suggest the tuning slide, if you’re intending to play with others, even privately, but even that’s less important than the sound you get out of it.
And Liberace was a great pianist.
I notice that several of Welk’s band tunes were recorded in Richmond, Indiana, which seemed to be quite active musically in the early part of the 20th century. I grew up a few miles from there. Sure is a lot of difference, then and now.
Obviously, I am not qualified to judge Lawrence Welk. When you only have one TV in the house, if you watch TV, you watch what your parents want to watch. If it were up to me, I would have changed the channel when the Lawrence Welk show came on. Maybe there would have been a good boxing match, or something like that.
I saw this for sale on eBay this morning. I thought it was an Irish Flute, but it turns out that it’s French.
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen it go that way 
Believe it or not, the French make Irish flutes, and the Irish buy Irish flutes made in Australia. Go figure.
buy this one!
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/ebay-george-ormiston-keyless-flute-12-26-sold/74106/1
no, wait, sorry, buy this one!
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/fs-hammy-hamilton-flute-keyless-sold/74016/1
seriously, these are great flutes, and VERY irish.
cheers,
eric