How should we get the word out and get a good thing going again? Do we use social media, jam websites, local news, what's the best way in your experience, HN?
1 relies on knowing the hot local musos, and which of them will bring along their other muso friends and their "scene" followers. Where I am, a large part of the jazz and funk scenes work like this. This almost exclusively happens on social media and by word of mouth. It piggybacks the social networks of the musicians/bands, and the venue/promoter. Comping drinks/meals/tickets to the musos can make a big difference here, and if you charge a cover charge letting them run a big guest list helps heaps too - everybody loves "being on the list" from the muso the chatted to at a gig last week, it makes the punters feel very special. (It might even be worth putting a super nominal cover charge on, say $5 or even $2, and instructing the door staff to use any excuse imaginable to "let people in for free" - "Nice shoes! Come on, I'll add you to the list." "Oh Hi, you're a regular, right? We're only charging tourists..." "A group of five? Awesome, drink up and we'll comp the cover charge.")
2 relies on staking enough money to pay for big enough names/acts that people who aren't part of your venue's scene recognise. This needs to be advertised in places that're probably out of your collective social networks - the act is likely to not be local so their social network promotion will have a smaller effect than local acts, and the venue/promoters social networks probably don't have any of the "non scene" punters in them. For this approach, you want to comp relevant radio show hosts, bloggers, and "influencers" (even though I hate that word...) instead of the band members (who you're probably going to have to pay commercial rates for).
That's how it works with bar-sized acts here in Sydney, anyway.
Being Irish Jams at an Irish Pub probably changes that some, I don't know if there are likely to be a lot of potential audience for Irish Jams that don't already hang out at the local Irish Pub? That'd get super location specific too, chasing that audience in New York would be way different to chasing it in Dublin or Sydney, and I don't have a clue how close to any of those the "Irish community and fans" in Providence, RI are.
i know this is the most obvious solution, and as unthinkable as taxing the rich, but figured i'd state it for the record.