Newtown Cove & Cork City

I really need to write these things more often because each time that I sit down to add a new post I realise that I have about 250 more photos to sort through!

Newtown Cove
From Waterford City I went back to the coast, just 15km to an area called Tramore (Trá Mhór) - A very touristy seaside resort complete with funfair and amusement arcades along the promenade leading to a long sandy beach... everything was shut though because the tourist season hadn't started yet, and it wasn't really the kind of place I was looking to stay in, so I carried on just another 1km west to a tiny village called Newton Cove.

I stayed in a a caravan park there where I was the first visitor of the season. About two minutes walk was Newton Cove itself, a small rocky beach at the bottom of a wooded valley... a bit like Petit Bot or Saints Bay in Guernsey... if it had been a little bit warmer then I would have been in for a swim.


I stayed around here for two days, just exploring the lanes and the cliffs... on Saturday night I drove back to Dungarvan for the evening to listen to the singers that I had heard there the week before - this time joined by the lead singer's son who played fiddle and whistles.


Cork City
On Sunday I left Co. Waterford (for about the third time) and made it to the city of Cork about 3/4 the way along the south coast. It seems much flatter around here, not completely flat, just not mountainous. The city centre is on an island in the middle of the river Lee, with about 6 or 7 bridges on either side.

River Lee
One of the main streets in Cork City Centre
The historical area of Cork
St Finbars Cathedral, Cork City

A couple of photos from Mallow (a town about 30kms from Cork City)


That night I wandered around until I found a traditional session in a pub called Sin É (shin ay - I think it means something like 'That's It') which I had been told about by Tommy, the flute player at the session in Waterford, on Thursday. Lots more great music once again but the place was crammed with people which made it very difficult to physically play... so after a couple of tunes I ended up chatting to a few of the locals and then a French guy called Benjamin who was also playing fiddle in the session suggested that we head next door to a pub called The Corner House where a bluegrass session is just starting. So there I played in my first bluegrass session... unfortunately my camera was out of batteries so I have no pics from that night.

Now last night was the craziest of nights so far, I'm sure a night like that wouldn't happen anywhere other than Ireland!...

It began like most other nights, walking around randomly for about 30mins until I happened to find where the pub was (Sin É), funnily enough it was in the same place it had been the night before. Again packed out, but not quite as much as on Sunday - I managed to grab a stool close enough to the session to join in a bit more this time - the session was just like the other sessions, lots of tunes, chatting, laughing, and a drink or two...
By closing time (about midnight) Pius (mandolin player (& fiddle, guitar etc etc)), Alysha (French Harp player) and a few others, who's names I can't remember, asked if I wanted to head out to a late night bar for a couple more drinks... along the way we bumped into Benjamin (the French fiddler) and William (who I had got chatting to on Sunday night too - a professional actor/musician from London on tour with a musical about the life of Eva Cassidy) had also come into the bar so they both joined us, and a few others long the way. In the bar, I think it was called 'Cranelane' there were three guitarist/singers playing regae kind of music - a really good atmosphere.
Now when this place closed (about 3am) is when things started to get interesting... we were walking back across the city and someone said that they felt like playing some more music... I said that I did too - so there, in the middle of the road, on a side street in Cork city, we all got out our instruments and had another session! - Some girls passing by joined in with some Irish dancing... we played for about 30mins until the police asked us to move on.

The guy playing the banjo in the first photo also does a lot of busking and he has made a device that allows him to play 2 guitars at the same time (one I think is foot powered) - he didn't play it tonight so I'm not sure exactly how it works, but everybody said it is really good.


A really amazing evening, it's hard to believe that all of this happened in just one night... and I haven't finished yet!

Everybody decided to head home to bed. We all said goodbye and I was told of another trad session that will be on the next night in another bar in the city...

I happened to be walking back to my hostel in the same direction as a French couple, Luic & Jen, who had joined us for the night and I had been chatting to earlier... they had really enjoyed the music it seems and had a crazy idea that it would be really romantic for them to go down by the river and have somebody to play more music for them - I did try to persuade them that it probably wasn't as great an idea as they imagined, but they told me it would make a perfect end to their night - so that was it, the night ended somewhere between 4 and 5am playing music to a French couple on the banks of the river Lee!... only in Ireland!

A blurry photo of Luic & Jen
Thank you to everybody that I spent time with in Cork, I had an amazing few days! - Hopefully I'll catch up with you all again in a few weeks.

So that brings us to today, my last day & night in Cork city - I have a mountain of laundry to get done... and this blog post and sorting my photos has already taken me more than 2hrs! - tonight it is either a trad session in the city, a party at the apartment where Luic and Jen are staying, or meeting up with the guys from the Eva Cassidy musical in Sin É after their performance... more than likely it will be a bit of everything, or something completely different!