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