Sunday, October 5, 2014

We went out in search of music last evening. We found lots of music in the pubs but it was standing room only – if you were lucky enough to get in the doors. We had dinner and then came back to our accommodation. Gary, our host, told us that a lot of the pubs don’t have any seating – they are stand-up venues.

After a good long sleep (except for the wind howling at the window) we headed out for the day. We found a lovely little spot for breakfast. I had a “Hippy Breakfast” – I’m not sure what was hippie about it. The fellow who delivered our meals called it a vegetarian breakfast. The only reason I ordered it was because it came with a potato cake. It tasted the same as the ones we make but it was thicker.

We heard there was music in one of the pubs in the afternoon, and Gary said that this particular place had seating. Pat checked online and said the music started at one. We still had lots of time so we did a bit of wandering. I enjoy seeing the swans – they really had to work today as they battled the wind.

The wind was cold and I was anticipating an Irish coffee to warm up. When we first went by the pub it was still closed. We wandered past a church and decided the bar wouldn’t open until Sunday services were done. We stopped by the bar again after the noon bells rang but still no luck. We asked a gentleman on the street and he told us the bar would open at 12:30 so we found a place to warm up and have a cup of tea.

When we got into the pub we were told the music wouldn’t start until two. We went back out in the cold and wandered down a few streets before deciding to just wait it out in the bar. We were only there a short time before the players started showing up. For quite awhile the players outnumbered the patrons but the place filled up before the afternoon was over.

I stopped counting when there were 14 players in the circle – fiddlers, penny whistles, bodhran, guitars and even some Uilleann pipes. Every now and again someone in the crowd would wander up and sing one or two songs. There were a lot of old fellows there who knew all the musicians and the songs they were playing. Pat had conversations with many of them!

The pub promised more music tonight but by the time supper was over the winds had picked up and the rain had started so we decided to hunker down for the night.