Hello,
It depends on what music you want to play. I guess that you want to play Damien Rice's songs, so you should get a folk guitar.
You can easily get a guitar starter kit, starting around 40$. Most of the time, it includes a teaching DVD.
I think Yamaha have one of the bests guitars for beginners (good price and quality). "Cort", "Morris", "Takamine", "Fender" or "Ibanez" are some kind of cheap and good too.
You don't necessary need an expensive guitar to start with. You can also get a "no brand" guitar. I started on a classical guitar (nylon strings) made in China that was less than 20$ and it made my days. Just go to the guitar shop, and ask them the best guitar for the price you wanna pay for.
To finish, I will just give you that link, because it's a great site to learn guitar.
http://www.justinguitar.com/index.php
PS : Once you get through the pain in the fingers (because of bared chords) and the callouses (your left hands fingers tips will harden, or your right finger if you are a lefty...), it's only fun.