It may be Irish music. It may be Irish dance. It may be both – and often is. No matter, though. If it’s Irish and it makes you tap your foot, it sells. In fact, it sells out, as has the Saturday concert “Christmas From Dublin” featuring three Irish tenors at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

That’s not unusual, said tenor Anthony Norton, speaking from the road somewhere between Louisiana and Texas. Packed, eager houses have met the group at every stop during a monthlong tour in this country. It just goes to show that Americans are crazy for anything Irish, Norton confirmed.

“They go for it big-style,” he said. “They go mad, actually. Hugely. We’ve never failed to get a standing ovation.”

Part of the enthusiasm comes from the surge of interest in Irish culture in the last decade. Not only has the Republic of Ireland stepped up to the international table, but Irish-Americans have increasingly reconnected with their families across the ocean.

“Ireland is very proud of itself,” said Norton, who grew up in an Irish community in Manchester, England. “All people associated with it are becoming equally proud.”

Norton and his co-tenors, Ciaran Nagle and Paul Byrom, tap into those associations with a program that includes Christmas music and operatic selections, as well as traditional Irish melodies. The idea for a touring gig with three Irish tenors came about shortly after the first popularized “three tenors” – Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti – premiered on television in 1999.

At the time, Norton and Nagle were performing with another tenor, whom Byrom replaced this year. But the group, which has been together since 2000, is making its third American tour with a Christmas concert.

While the particular language of any song contributes to the quality of any given voice and tonal dynamics, these three tenors know there is something distinct about an Irish tenor. It could be that the Irish accent, noted for a lilting quality, enhances the roundness of the sound. It’s more likely, however, that the historical importance and the ubiquity of singing in Ireland infuse the sound with a tenderness and emotion that is unique among Irish tenors.

“The root of the sound of the Irish tenor line is the softness of the accent and the rotundity of the sound,” said Norton officially. But he quickly added: “In the songs that we sing, in Irish songs in general, the root of most of our musical culture is the transmission of our history. For a long time, we couldn’t tell our own story. We couldn’t write it down. It couldn’t be printed. The Irish heritage was transferred through song and poetry. So the songs are quite often endowed with an oppressed and tragic history. Obviously, we have some great happy and wonderful songs as well. But the tendency is that our singing is a vehicle for great pathos.”

The Christmas show, he assured, is much more upbeat.

“One of the things the Irish do best is celebrate,” Norton said. “We do parties. We’re famous for that. And if you go to an Irish party, you have to sing. We’re trying to bring that spirit with us.”