Irish oats aka steelcut oats (as far as I am aware) are just oats that have been chopped up instead of being flaked. Imagine taking the best oats, removing the outer husk (which is inedible) and then cutting them into smaller pieces - that's all we do!
http://www.mccanns.ie/
As a result they need to be boiled with plenty of water for ~20 minutes to gelatinize their starches before they are mashed. I've used them a couple times and haven't tasted a reason to go through the extra effort or not using flaked/rolled oats.
As the previous poster said, you can toast any kind of oats yourself either in the oven (or a dry skillet). Let them go until they smell like oatmeal cookies, it is easy to overcook them, dont wait for much of a color change.