CAVAN HOME OF FLEADH CEOL NA hEIREANN
Now this is the real stuff!!!!
We arrived in Cavan, Belturbet yesterday. First stop was a visit to Fintan McManus and Ann Donoghue, grand cup of tea and a huge welcome as always there, followed of course by a discussion on the week’s activities.
It goes a bit like this so far, tonight, we are joining Fintan Mc, Martin Donohoe, Laurence Nugent and lots of other musicians for Ceol agus Craic in The Widows, that starts at 9.00pm, and 300 hundred boats are expected in the harbour here for the Launch of the Fleadh! That should be some sight.
Monday sees the lads going to Scoil Eigse, as they will every day next week. Tuesday evening we will join with Michael Sheerin, PJ and the lads once again in The Widows.
Wednesday, well it has to be The Farnham Arms in Cavan Town, music there again with Fintan, Martin, Laurence and the host of brilliant musicians that are a regular feature there.
Thursday, well I’m still here in the Horseshoes, writing this up, and I forgot to bring the programme in with me! Ah well. I’ll just continue by memory!
Friday, The Renowned SEAN O SE is going to be on the GigRig, singing his wonderful heart out. All those lovely old Irish tunes we all know and love so well. He is Awesome.
Now Saturday is a big day for us, we are playing on the GigRig, launching the book and cd at 6.00pm till 7.00pm I forgot to mention that the GigRig is called Peace III, anyway, its located in the Egg Market in Cavan Town. There will be Park and Ride facilities in place, shuttle buses will take people from allocated carparks to the Town Centre, and I suppose you will find us there. Cant be too difficult to spot a GigRig??? Just ask if you cant find it, the friendly Cavan people and trad visitors are always so approachable. Did I tell you that a 250,000 people are expected in Cavan this week! WOW
I am currently dropping you a line from The Seven Horseshoes Hotel in Belturbet, and I suppose an update of what we’ve been up to over the Summer wouldn’t go astray! So far, it has been a very busy but nice Summer.
We have had some great seisuins in Mayo, Kitty McGreal’s in Kiltymagh is a regular venue for us when we are there, and we usually play two nights, Friday and Saturday.
We are only back from a lovely trip to Dingle, Co. Kerry, and we then moved on to Mountshannon, Co. Clare, we stayed home for 5 days then, just long enough to re-pack the suitcases for Cavan. We had some brilliant lively seisuins in Dingle, the evening we arrived, we went to O’Flaharta’s and enjoyed playing with Seamus O’Flaherty, Cillian and Brid O’Briain and others, the Sunday saw us in the Marina, again playing with the amazing Con Duhan, John Ryan and many other excellent musicians, the music there is so lively, totally uplifting. Later on in the week we played with Gordon Saunders and Seamus Flahive in Paidi’s. One of the days we took a boat to The Blasket Island, it is gorgeous over there, and while there we decided not to leave the Island without playing a few tunes! Anu agus Luna was the first I played there, it was afterall, written for the two little girls whose dad Eamon comes from there, and they spend their entire Summer on Wine Strand. As luck would have it, I bumped into them and their parents in the Marina! And while on the Blasket, Brian met his teacher Eoin! Ah ye can go nowhere anymore, imagine meeting someone you know on a day trip to a usually deserted Island……
Well, the Saturday saw us moving on to Clare, Mountshannon was as always, beatiful, walking by the lake and taking the pace of life easy, well, the days anyway. Night time was a different story of course. We played in Keanes on the Saturday, thats a small pub in the village, where the trad spills out onto the street, and you never know who is going to drop in. Lady AnnDora was in great form as always, despite her very mature years, she still managed to waltz and have a go at the bodhran! Such a character. We also played there on the Wednesday.
On Sunday, we went to the hotel, Fr. Eamon Barry was home from America and a few great tunes were played, once again till VERY LATE. Mary Smith was there too on the fiddle, we also had a great guitarist and banjo player. Some excellent singers too.
Friday evening took us to Whitegate, Lucas’ pub was the venue for that evening’s entertainment. Once again our ceol-oiche was lively and bustling, the Clare tunes make a lovely contrast to the Kerry ones, Teresa who was on the flute is from near to Loughrea, so some of Vincent Broderick’s tunes were included in this seisuin. Such a pleasure to play with the musicians from all these counties mentioned so far.
