Hey all!
I’m back from mo thuras mór (four weeks in Ireland, followed by a Mediterranean cruise…poor me!). Took zillions (well, thousands) of pics. Here’s the first batch, taken during the first week (June 14-21), mostly in and around Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare. You may recognize some (or all) of the other folks in the photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59717925@N00/sets/72157606408884478/
I’ll be putting more photos up as time allows. The next batch will be from Donegal and Derry.
Redwolf
Mór! Mór! 
djm
Think I actually saw yez in the street in B’vaughan on the 15th. We had gone up Gleninagh mountain and were having lunch at the tea-junction after.
found this on the top of the mountain that afternoon, it intrigues me to no end:
Very possible, then…we were all over Ballyvaughan that day (it being our first full day in Ireland), but most of us didn’t wander very far afield. A group of us went down to the shore in the morning, then a few of us went to church (Where part of the service was in Irish! Imagine my surprise, hearing Irish at a regular church service in Ballyvaughan!), and to the craft fair in the village after. Was that the little tea/crepe place on the corner, just down the street from Spar?
Funny the things you find lying around. Just think…if an archeologist were to find that little copper man a thousand years hence, he’d probably think it was some kind of idol from an obscure 21st century pagan sect! 
(then again, who knows…maybe it is!)
Redwolf
Did you go to the session in Monk’s at all on the sunday afternoon? Brid O Donohue and Seamus Hynes take turns there. The weeks she’s on Brid usually takes the middle daughter who is a lovely harp player (as well as dancer, piper, whistleplayer, and piano player) along.
Mór indeed! This next batch was taken in Donegal, with a few in Derry:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59717925@N00/sets/72157606418168326/
Redwolf
You should have said hello! It would have been nice to meet another “Chiffer” 
We didn’t get to Monk’s…I don’t think we knew about it until it was too late. Unless, of course, I’m getting details mixed up. We did go to Greene’s on Thursday, but didn’t stay for that one.
And here’s batch number three: Dublin/Glendalough (note: If you’ve never been, Glendalough is well-worth a visit!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59717925@N00/sets/72157606427170165/
Redwolf
It’s not it wasn’t mentioned beforehand
We were only there the one Sunday, and I think we were all still a bit jet lagged. Had we been there for the second Sunday, one of us might have thought of it.
We did pop into Green’s, which claimed to have traditional music, one evening, but it was very crowded, and they played nothing but singalong “tourist” music (if I never hear “The Wild Rover” again it will be too soon! I swear I heard it pumping out of every pub in Dublin at least twice a night!), so we went next door for a quiet pint instead.
The best trad music I heard was in Donegal, where I was lucky enough to hear James Byrne and his family play on three occasions (not to mention some fantastic sean-nós singing!). Would have been nice to hear the Clare versions as well, but it just didn’t work out this trip. Next time, for sure!
Redwolf
But I think I like Tommy and the boys better.
Sorry…let me rephrase that. We didn’t think about it until it was too late. 
The Dubliners ain’t bad either.
Imagine that . . . playing touristy music for the tourists. Those Irish are a clever bunch. The next thing you know they’ll be selling celtic crosses and walton whistles in their touristy shops and Guiness in their touristy pubs. When that happens I’m afraid it’s all downhill from there. Thank God for the English and the Americans who are able to show the world what it means to be truly Irish.
So where did that chip on your shoulder come from?
I’m not casting any judgment on people who play touristy music for tourists. Often they’re fine musicians, and you do what you need to do to earn a buck (or a Euro). Irish trad is, admittedly, a limited market. In fact, most of the Irish people I know personally happen to prefer country and western music, or rock, or even classical, to Irish trad.
But when a person happens to BE a traditional musician, typically the real deal is what he wants to hear…and it’s nice to know that there is good, authentic, trad available as well. Those of us who went on the Ballyvaughan trip all happened to be traditional musicians of one stripe or another, so that’s what we were interested in hearing. To each his own. We went into Greens, didn’t enjoy what we heard, and chose to go somewhere else. Such is life. Lots of people stayed as well, so no one suffered by our preference.
A nice option for people visiting Dublin is the “Traditional Music Pub Crawl.” I decided to do that kind of at the last minute (after having heard one too many renditions of “The Wild Rover”), and I can’t recommend it highly enough for those people who want something a bit beyond the touristy stuff. It’s led by two or three local musicians each night (they rotate, so you never know from night to night who will be leading the tour). They play a variety of types of traditional music, but most important, they also TALK about traditional music…how it evolved, how various non-native instruments came to be added to the tradition, how it differs from the singalong tourist pub fare, etc. It’s a fun evening, and an education for a lot of people (there happened to be an excellent uillean piper leading our particular group, and many of the visitors had never heard the uillean pipes before…they were captivated!)
Redwolf
Well said Red me dear…
I was over in Dublin last week meself and it was hard to find a bit of the real thing but what the hell..home is home 
Slan,
D.
So you didn’t spot any movie stars playing the fiddle in B’vaughan?
Nice fiddler he is too.
Prof. Moody?
djm