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