Galway City

Galway
I arrived in Galway on a hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon. I unpacked into the hostel and then went wandering around town to see what I could find. Galway is quite a small city, but being a student town the streets and square were packed with people shopping and sunbathing.

That night I went out looking for a music session but instead ended up listening to a bluegrass band and chatting to a local guy and a German marine biochemist researcher. At the end of the night I was heading back to the hostel, but having looked after my fiddle all evening I decided that I wasn't going to go to bed without playing it, so I set up at the side of the main street and had a go at busking for the first time on my own. By this time it was very late and most people had gone home but I still managed to make 20 Euro (£15) in 40 minutes, which I thought was pretty good going for a first attempt.

On Thursday I came back to the hostel after a day walking around in the sunshine to find that I had a brand new set of room mates... and they turned out to be a great bunch of people; Andy and Bobby are brothers who are visiting Ireland for a week from Colorado; Shannon & Sarah are over from Canada spending the summer working in Galway.

Me, Bobby, Andy, Sarah, Shannon A posing heron
We all headed out that night and spent the evening getting to know each other and listening to some excellent live music (non-trad for a change!) in a great pub called The Kings Head. It turns out that Andy plays guitar, and Shannon step-dances, so at closing time we went back to the hostel to pick up my fiddle and guitar and give busking another try - this time we were a bit too late and even though we made 4 Euro in about 2 minutes there weren't many people around so we moved on to find somewhere a bit more populated, but eventually admitted defeat. Us guys headed back to the hostel while the girls went on to find a night club.


Us providing street entertainment The next day went along in a similar way except by the evening Shannon & Sarah had been hit by jet lag and had decided they were going to bed early. I went out with Bobby & Andy to a session that I was certain I had seen advertised (more than once) around town but it turned out to be non-existent, however on the way past another pub the doorman saw the fiddle and invited us in to join the session there - we just caught the last 20 mins of it and then went back to drop the instruments back to the hostel (The plan was to come back later and try busking again but that never happened). While we were back in the hostel the girls caved into peer pressure and decided to join us for a little while, which turned out to be a good move because somehow we managed to end up in a pub which was hosting the party for some guy who had just been elected as chairman of the Vinters Federation of Ireland - this meant that there was free food, which Andy & Bobby did very well in acquiring for us!

Free Food
The next day the American guys headed off to spend a few days in Dingle and I went out in my van to make sure the battery was charged up, and to see what I could find a bit further afield. The girls were busy finding jobs, and a place to live, which amazingly they did both within 3 days of arriving in Ireland despite spending most the time partying and having no work visas or money!

I haven't got much of a clue about where I went but I found some nice mountains and loughs about 40mins drive out of the city... I think to the north.


The next two evenings I spent in town with Shannon & Sarah celebrating their new jobs and apartment as well as helping them to get acquainted with Galway nightlife... they seem to be doing pretty well at this, there is even 1 bar where we were getting free drinks all night because Shannon's cousin worked there last year. We met all sorts of people these few nights, a group of American engineer students and a group of German students too as well as lots of Irish.

American Engineer Students
Me & 'The Galway Girls'
A really great few days but I think I need a few days of recovery now!

Skibbereen & Baltimore

Skibbereen & Baltimore
Last weekend I headed all the way back to Co. Cork for the annual Baltimore fiddle fair. This was an amazing weekend of sessions, workshops, & Concerts. The festival kicked off on Thursday night with a performance by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - the lead singer and fiddle player from one of the biggest Irish trad bands around; Altan.

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
The second half of the concert was by Annbjørg Lien, a Norwegian fiddle player who played a lot of traditional Norwegian music on her Hardanger fiddles - an amazing instrument that looks a lot like a violin but it has 8 strings, 4 of which run under the fingerboard and bridge and give it really haunting echo.

Annbjørg Lien

Hardanger Fiddle
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Annbjørg Lien

The next day I went to an excellent fiddle workshop run by Mairéad in the gardens of a cafe in Baltimore.

The town was filled with musicians all weekend, and some big names too... The festival finished off on Sunday night with a concert by Martin Hayes - one of the top few fiddle players in the world. It was an amazing performance, unfortunately my camera wouldn't record video so I had to use my phone and it hasn't come out very well but you get the idea.

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill

Darol Anger, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes, & Tim Kliphuis

Baltimore Headland

Seared Fresh Tuna Steak (recipe from the book)

Co. Kildare

The next few posts will be brief so that hopefully I can catch up with them.

Co. Kildare
After my unexpected detour through Limerick I finally arrived in Clane, the town where Derek's mum (Sheila) lives, at about 5 o'clock on Saturday evening. I met up with Derek, Sarah, and Derek's family. We headed straight out to the hotel across the road where a lot of Derek's friends had met up for a few drinks. I met a lot of people and can't remember most their names but they were all a good laugh, we had a really great night. The next day we had a bit of a lie-in and then Sheila & Derek cooked a really nice Irish breakfast... The weather was amazing, blue skies and really hot - we were thinking of going to do some sight seeing in the mountains but by the time we had surfaced and had breakfast it was nearly 3pm so we decided to give that a miss. Instead we went out for a birthday BBQ for Derek's friend Liz. We had another really fun evening, I met a few new faces and quite a few of the people from the night before. Derek took his mandolin and guitar and I took my fiddle and we had a bit of a music session. After the BBQ we headed back to the bar where Derek's mum and her sister were, and once the live music finished we went back to Sheila's for some more music which went on pretty much until sunrise.

A very blurred picture of Sarah, Derek, Staffy, & Gillian (Derek's sister)

Staffy (i think) showing me his impression of a 'knacker' (kind of the Irish equivilent of a chav) - he got a bit carried away with this role and eventually was asked to leave the bar!


Liz's BBQ

Derek
Waiting for a taxi - Derek, Conor (i think), & me
Sheila & TerrySheila's sister & partner (Veronica... or Val - something beginning with V & John - maybe!)

Liz & Patrick

A big thank you to Derek & Sarah for letting me hijack your holiday, and thanks to Sheila for putting me up for the weekend!

Glendalough
On the Monday I headed of to a valley in the Mountains called Glendalough. Glendalough is a really tranquil spot in the Wicklow mountains with a couple of lakes (the name literally means valley (glen) of 2 (da) lakes (lough)... I think). With the sun shining it was perfect - except for the fact that it was a bank holiday Monday and the entire population of the east coast of Ireland had decided that it would be a nice place to go for the day... this is the only place so far on my trip that I have actually been stuck in a traffic jam! - I drove just a few km from Glendalough and found a secluded little area to park up for the night - I went for a little walk into the valley and played some music before going to bed to try and catch up with some sleep.

Limerick

Limerick
After my final fiddle lesson in Kenmare on the Friday I headed across the country to meet up with Derek & Sarah who were over from Guernsey for a wedding. Derek is a friend of mine who plays and sings in the 'Dukes of Vazon' band who I have played with a few times... Sarah is the Dukes biggest fan and number 1 groupie, she also happens to be Derek's girlfriend. Derek is from Co. Kildare, which is the next county west of Dublin, and that is where I was heading.

I left Kenmare mid afternoon with the plan of driving half way, finding somewhere to stop for the night, and carrying on the next day. About 2hrs into driving I stopped for fuel just outside a small town called Adare. It was here that my van decided to break down. The engine wouldn't start - the starter motor wasn't even turning over. With the help from the guy in the fuel station we managed to push start and I went off to find a caravan park to stay at and then call the RAC out in the morning.

When the RAC guy arrived he thought the same as me - that the starter motor was bust, but that wasn't something he could fix so I got another push start and headed off to find a garage. It was late morning by this time on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend so I wasn't holding out much hope. I thought my best chances would be in a bigger city so I drove a few kilometers further to the city of Limerick. I tried 6 or 7 garages (leaving my engine on the whole time) but all said that they didn't have any mechanics working today and because it was an electrics problem it probably wasn't something they'd deal with anyway. A few of the garages gave me directions to a auto-electrician called Des Kennedy but despite ending up on the same street each time I couldn't find him anywhere... eventually I found a man in oily blue overalls working on a car outside what looked like a normal garage of a house, this turned out to be Des.

I explained my problem but he didn't sound very optomistic, I think he was planning on finishing early but he said he'd take a look. By this point I was getting a bit worried because I could see myself having to spend the long weekend sleeping in my van on a backstreet of Limerick, which I have been told has the reassuring nickname of 'Stab City' because of a previous spate violence.

To my releif Des removed the starter motor and took it to pieces and amazingly managed to get it working again... it took a couple of hrs during which time he had a constant stream of customers coming in. While he was working we got chatting and I asked him how he had become so popular despite being in a backstreet without any signs... he said there were 2 reasons. The first was that he was very good at his job, and for the second reason he pointed me to the wall on the other side of his garage where there were lots of press cuttings and photographs... it turns out that Des is a bit of a local celebrity, he used to play football for Limerick and played in some pretty high profile matches - he even scored twice against Real Madrid in the European cup... I have just found that there is a small article about him on wikipedia - click here.

Anyway... he got me on the road again and only a few hours late I arrived in Co. Kildare for another mad weekend... but that'll be another post very soon!

Kenmare

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm a few days out of date with posting on here because of lack of internet connection and breaking down in Limerick - that will be in my next post soon, first here is what I got up to last week in Kenmare.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenmare
I have spent the past 5 days in Kenmare, a small town in Co. Kerry close to the border with Co. Cork. I booked myself onto 5 days of one to one fiddle tuition with an amazing fiddle tutor called Gill Newlyn. This course was the main reason for visiting Ireland and my whole trip has been planned around it - and I wasn't disappointed! I have had a brilliant week.

I arrived in town on Sunday night and went out looking for some music to listen to. I couldn't find any sessions but I came across a place in town with a couple of guys playing some set dance tunes (polkas, waltz, & 2 step) - this kind of music, especially polkas, are really popular here in co Kerry. The dance floor was packed with people dancing, maybe it was because of the good music, or maybe because the dancers were enjoying freedom from their zimmer frames - everyone was having fun though... it was a nice evening even if I was the youngest in the bar by a good 40 years!
My fiddle lessons each day have been at Gill's house which is about 15 minutes drive along a track up into the mountains. The lessons have been until 1pm and I have spent the afternoons in the mountains going over what I have just learnt and then practicing for the next day's lesson. In the evenings I have been either playing in sessions or listening to live music around town. It has been a really fun & tiring week!

Gill

Chris (Gill's husband)Noreen - a local fiddle player



From after just a few minutes of my first lesson on Monday morning it was clear that despite it being the same bow producing the same notes on the same strings attached to the same piece of wood, the traditional Irish fiddle is actually a completely different instrument to the classical violin that I have been squeezing Irish tunes out of for the past few years. I feel like I have picked up a new instrument for the first time (and sound a bit like it too!) but even just after a few days the difference in sound is amazing - There is a lot to take in, I just hope I remember everything that I have learnt - the most difficult part will be when I get back home and be playing classical violin one day and traditional fiddle the next without getting the two mixed up.

Dean & Noreen
During my free time I have been exploring the Beara peninsula. Today I headed out to the very end of the peninsula on the recommendation of Gill and her husband Chris. The scenery is stunning, on the same scale as the dingle peninsula but in a very different way... it's hard to describe the difference and because I forgot to take my camera with me you'll just have to try and guess what it was like! (or click here)

Tomorrow I will set off on the long drive across the country to Kildare, near Dublin, where I will be meeting up with Derek & Sarah (from Guernsey) who are over for a friend's wedding.

Cahersiveen

Killarney
I made it to Killarney but with the rain still coming down strong I only stayed overnight and then carried on to the town of Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen
Cahersiveen is a small town on the western side of the ring of Kerry. When I was checking into the campsite I got chatting to Phil, the guy on reception, who told me that he had a friend who plays fiddle and might like to meet up to play some music... so the next day at 11am I met up with a fiddler called Peter Malarkey. Peter is a professional musician, he does a lot of teaching of traditional fiddle, but has also set up a fascinating project called binneas. Binneas is a project in which Peter is trying to collect traditional tunes which have never been publicly written down or recorded. It involves meeting up with old fiddlers and with the families of musicians who have died and may have got personal recordings or some kind of written record of the tunes hidden away somewhere. He has built of a collection of hundreds of tunes that have never been heard outside of small towns here in Kerry, and many which haven't even been heard around here for a long time. His hope is that he can make a public online library of these tunes so that they do not get forgotten. Peter gave me a bit of a fiddle lesson and taught me a couple of really nice tunes which have not been played for over 80 years and have most likely never been played anywhere outside of a small area of Kerry called Drumaragh.


As it is the weekend there were no music sessions locally but Peter told me of a good one in Killarney on the Saturday night, so I drove up there and after taking nearly an hour to find parking I joined in for a few tunes in a very noisy pub. The musicians were mainly button accordion players, there was also another fiddle player, a guitarist, and a bodhran player, but with the noise it was hard to hear anything other than the accordions.

John Bronson (accordion)

Last night I cooked another meal from THE cookbook. This time it was 'spicy sausage penne' except I didn't have any penne so I used fusilli instead. This wasn't just ordinary pasta with sausages and a bit of chilli - it involved cooking things in white wine and also posh words like 'saute' (BTW you can click on the images to make them bigger, that way you should be able to read the recipes).