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There are two common stringing methods with 3 or 4 fairly standard tunings for the instrument. The courses can be strung in unison or with octave strings on the two lower courses. I’ve tried both. It’s easier to keep good intonation with the unison strings, but the octave strings sound really cool if you’re doing an alternating bass line with your thumb.

Many folks tune it G-D-A-E, an octave lower than a mandolin. That was easy for me to grasp, not because I play mandolin, but because I could visualize the mirror image of the bottom four strings of my guitar.

G-D-A-D is also a common tuning. My bouzouki spends most of its time in this tuning. It’s great for establishing a bagpipe-like drone and really lends itself to fingerpicking.

And if you just want to have fun, you can tune A-D-A-D get an alternating bass going with your thumb on the lower two courses while playing melody on the two upper courses.

Since the Irish bouzouki is a fairly recent invention (it’s existed in its current form since the late 1960s) it still seems to be going thru an evolution in the standardization of its tuning.