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.