July 30th, Achill Island

Hi folks! We're still battling away at school. In Karen's class they switched teachers for the morning and she found  that she learned more about style and ornamentation. She liked that better, because she can always learn new tunes at home. The weather has been a bit iffy, but we've been able to do most of the things that we wanted.

The recital that we mentioned in our last blog was held in an old church on the north side of the island. Because we were worried about parking (a persistant problem here) we had dinner near the church. As we went into the retaurant a big Irishman walked up and shook our hands - it was the barman from the pub where we had played the night before. He was thanking us for our playing and was very complimentary about my song and about Karen's flute playing. The recital turned out to be only a few of the tutors from the school, plus a couple of local lads. The two young men were pipers and whistle players, and ond of them is the son of our B&B hosts! He plays Scottish border pipes and his partner plays uilleann pipes - it made an interesting combination. One of the other players was a brilliant young harpist named Laoise Kelly. We were kind of surprised that there were no fiddlers on the program!

The next night (the 29th) there was a double CD launch at a local pub. (The pub is *very* local - about 500 yards down the road from our B&B!) One of the CDs was Laoise Kelly's, and we picked it up. She has recently moved to Achill, so she was treated royally by the locals. The other CD was by a local flute and whistle player; he's very fast, but not so musical as Laoise. The hall was packed and hot, and the show was nearly an hour late starting (Irish time!) - and then there were lengthy speeches in Irish before anyone played a note! We were lucky that we could walk home, because the car park was a nightmare when the show let out.

Yesterday the weather was fairly clear, so we went to the western end of the island and climbed up a long way to see the highest sea-cliffs in Europe. We had a limited view of the cliffs, but the views of the water and the island from the top was fantastic! There was also a beautiful bay at the bottom of the mountain, with a lovely sandy beach.

Today we went 'round the Atlantic Drive, which is a scenic route on the south side of the island. The weather was a bit dodgy when we started, but it cleared as we went along and we had some magnificent views of the cliffs, water and coastline, and lots of sheep that wander all over the road. Too many photos!! One of the sights was the castle of the pirate queen Grace O'Malley - you should Google her for her interesting story.

Tomorrow there will be an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most whistle players in one place playing the same tune. It will be on the long beach in Keel, and they are expecting thousands of players! I don't know what kind of news coverage it will get, but maybe if you Google it somebody will have posted a video or something.

There's a gala performance (more tutors from the school) tonight, so I guess it will be another late night. We're too old for this pace!

tower house associated with pirate queen Grace O'Malley

coastline on the Atlantic Drive

July 28th - Achill Island

Hi folks!

Haven't heard any world news since we've been on the island - hope everything is okay.

After we last wrote, we got to a pub session. We knew the tunes they were playing when we entered the pub, but for the rest of the time we were there, we could hardly play anything! The players seemed to be a mix of locals and outsiders like ourselves that are here for the school. Last night was different - we had much better luck. We went to a very old and tiny pub, with just a couple of musicians at first. When they saw we had instruments, they invited us to join them. When they showed us the list of tunes they usually play, it looked like a list from my Celtic group and Dave's session! They were very good about asking all the musicians who came in about the tunes they knew, and then tried playing those, or inviting them to start a tune. Everyone was very welcoming, and it was a lot of fun. They were surprised when I told them that we have 'closed' sessions at home, and one of the gals said "we're nicer than that!" However, having said that, a local guitarist who was playing with us was clearly a beginner, and wasn't able to keep up, and yet no one turned him away. Michael sang a song, and when someone does that, everyone in the pub has to be silent. The pub owner thanked him when we left, and one of the ladies in the audience told me that it was nice to hear the flute ( I don't think there's a regular flautist in their session.) The pub was made of stone with a thatched roof, and had no TV or telephone. The musicians were sitting, but most of the audience was standing up listening, as it was very tiny and crowded. They didn't seem to mind doing that though.

Instrumental classes haven't changed much since the first day. In my class (Karen) the teacher has us playing most of the time. We've been learning about 3 tunes by ear per day, and I'm finding that I'm forgetting the earlier ones! Luckily I've been taking a recorder to class most days. Michael's teacher does things very differently - he plays a couple of bars of the tune, and then goes around and listens to each person play it, so they don't get through nearly as much material, and don't get nearly as much opportunity to play. Michael's finding it somewhat boring having to listen to 20 other people play the same couple of bars, especially since a couple of them are struggling and should be in a lower level class.

Aside from that, we drove around in the afternoon and saw a deserted village. Today we're going to take a scenic drive if there's time. Tonight we're attending a recital of our teachers.

deserted village on Achill

Achill Island

Hi folks! We've had some less-than-spectacular weather, and have missed a couple of things we would have seen, except that the mist was so thick that you couldn't see anything! We also skipped an archaeological site because I was tired and fed up with narrow, poorly maintained roads and poor signage, even for what are supposed to be major tourist sites.

In Gorteen, near our B&B in Tubbercury we stopped at a music centre that was connected with Comhaltas. They had lots of CDs (we picked up a couple) and we found out about a show that night. It was billed as a session, so we took our instruments along, but it was actually more of a concert for young musicians. At the end of the show they invited us up to join them for their last set of tunes, so that was fun. People seem to be very welcoming with regard to music, but then we haven't tried to get into any high-powered sessions!

Scoil Acla, our music school, got started this morning. We registered and found out that we are in different buildings in different parts of the island, about 20 minutes apart (depending on road conditions). Karen's class is taught by Hammy Hamilton - not a name I'd heard before, but the flute players seemed to know who he is. One of the flute teachers is Peter Malloy (Matt Malloy's son) but he didn't make it in today because of car trouble. Her class had about 20 students, but it should be smaller with the arrival of another teacher. Both of our teachers taught us tunes by ear, and then tomorrow we'll learn more about ornamenting and style. My class is taught by Paddy Ryan, a well-respected player who has taught at Scoil Acla for the past twenty-five years. It looks as though some of our afternoons will be free depending on whether we want to attend the afternoon classes (which is why we are spending this time on the internet), so if we get some decent weather we can see a bit of the island. Sessions appear to run fairly late - one last night didn't get *started* until eleven o'clock - but we'll try to get to some of them all the same. I'm not sure how you're supposed to know where the sessions are on any given night, but our B&B hostess is well-connected with the school, so she may have heard something. The day is set up so that we have classes on our instruments from 10 - 1 with a break for tea, and then various classes are offered in things such as writing, dancing and Irish language in the afternoon. The evenings are different as well, with tonight being a play. At the end of the week there's a concert. The weather is bad now, but it's supposed to improve by Wednesday.

July 23

Today we walked around the walled city of Londonderry.It has expanded a great deal beyond the wall now. This was the site of Bloody Sunday, and unfortunately there's still evidence of the troubles that have taken place there. We then drove to Horn Head near our B&B in Dunfanaghy. This is as far north as we'll be going. The view from that point was supurb. The whole area in fact is quite picturesque.

Tonight we found some traditional music in a pub - a piper named Martin Crossin, who was the all-Ireland champion one year, and playing with him was Ian Smith on guitar, mandolin and vocals. I knew probably 2/3 of the tunes they were playing, but after they played a really nice one that I'd never heard, I asked the piper what it was called. He could tell by our discussion that we played, and both of them encouraged us to join them. Michael didn't think he'd be able to keep up on fiddle, and I wasn't sure I could either, but Ian said they'd slow down for us. I said for them to play and I'd join in if I could, but Ian wanted me to start some tunes that I knew. Of course I couldn't play everything they did, but it was great to be able to play as much as I did, and it was so kind of them to invite us to join them, especially since it wasn't an open session - they were the paid musicians in the pub that night, and they had no idea how well we played when they invited us. They were both complimentary of my playing, which amazed me. And when Michael mentioned that I had been concerned about the fact that I didn't play the Irish style of flute, Ian said that pepole seem to be more concerned about that outside of Ireland than they are here!Anyway, before they left Ian gave us a couple of his CD's and they both wished us well.

Gate in Londonderry wall

Londonderry mural showing Bernadette Devlin

Ireland, July 22

Hi folks! Our trip has gone well so far. We've had some difficulties finding things (even with GPS!) because signage seems to be somewhat erratic. We've had a mix of sun and rain, but the damp bits haven't kept us from doing anything. Driving is pretty nerve-wracking, but we're getting better at it as time goes along. Everybody has been pleasant and helpful, and we're enjoying listening to their accents, when we can understand them. Yesterday we saw Mount Stewart Gardens and a ruined abbey, drove through Belfast in absolutely teeming rain, and ended up in Carrickfergus, where we toured the castle. Today we drove along the Antrim coast, stopping at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, the Giant's Causeway (a really cool geological formation that is a World \heritage site) and Dunluce Castle. The castle sits so close to the edge of a cliff that part of it fell into the ocean in the 17th century, killing seven servants and taking the night's dinner with it! The coast was beautiful, and we had excellent weather so we got some great pictures! Tomorrow we'll visit Derry/Londonderry and then head north to our B&B at Dunfanaghy in the far north of the republic. We're not sure when we'll have a chance to post again. We'll be at our music school by Sunday night.

Carrickfergus Castle

Antrim coast

Giant's Causeway

Hi folks! Welcome to our travel blog! This seems like a much better idea than sending periodic e-mails while we're away - especially since we won't have to type in a dozen or more e-mail addresses.

We're leaving for Ireland on July 19th, and will post blog entries when we have computer access. (We're not taking a laptop, so we'll need more than just wi-fi access.)

Michael & Karen