  We continue the study of glider representations of finite groups $G$ with
given structure chain of subgroups $e \subset G_1 \subset \ldots \subset G_d =
G$. We give a characterization of irreducible gliders of essential length $e
\leq d$ which in the case of $p$-groups allows to prove some results about
classical representation theory. The paper also contains an introduction to
generalized character theory for glider representations and an extension of the
decomposition groups in the Clifford theory. Furthermore, we study irreducible
glider representations for finite nilpotent groups.
