There's no reason why you can't use an oboe or a Baroque oboe (but tuned to 440Hz) for Irish music - it'll go well with the pipes just as the bombarde goes well with the Highland pipes in folk music of Brittany.
Or get an old thumbplate or ring key conservatoire system oboe and take off most of the mechanism, block up the top joint Bb and C toneholes (as most Irish folk music is in the key of D) and you can do finger slides.