Ireland 2015

In five days, we’ll be returning to Ireland – four days in Dublin, then joining a ten day Men of Worth tour from Shannon to Sligo to Donegal, and then back to Shannon to wrap the tour, and then four days of decompression on the island Inishbofin up in the nortwest corner.  Not that there’s any need for decompression after the tour, since the tour is not afflicted by constant bus boarding, hotel changes, packing, unpacking, hurried meals, or hurried sight stopping.  No, this will be our fourth tour with the boys, enjoying some re-acquaintances from earlier tours, some new folks, some familiar sights, and the focal point more of music and nothing of Blarney Castle, Waterford crystal, or Hill of Tara. 

 James and Donnie came to the States from Ireland (Charlestown) and Scotland (Isle of Lewis) respectively, met and formed their duo out on the West Coast, and take tours back to Scotland and Ireland each year, touring and doing cultural Presentations  during the winter when the North Atlantic is less hospitable. They have lots of contacts back there, research the hotels, scout the food, chat up the managements, and find the deals themselves, and do most of the guiding, and sing in the pubs or present concerts with local or traveling musicians, including tour participants, every night of the tour. Their research is unfailingly good, resulting in great accommodations and meals, flexible scheduling, decent starting times, returns in time for naps (!), and for the young at heart, craic and late nights in the pubs. 

 if this sounds like  paid advertisement, it’s only because we’re such fans. Both boys are songwriters in English and Gaelic, Donnie teaches Gaelic at home in the States, and so their music is a mixture of contemporary and older Scottish and Irish music, all acoustic and well suited to traveling.  One couple on the upcoming tour has toured and played with them on 19 tours, another on 17, and other folks in the mix are newbies or have one, two, or more tours on their family escutcheon. 

 This will be our fourth time in Ireland, and we’ve persuaded John and Lynn Meyer to join us for Dublin and the tour.  We four will represent the Midwest among the tour group, the group otherwise being mostly west coasters.  The tours are usually booked solid into the following year, although former tourers, friends and family get preferences.

Check out their  website, http://www.menofworth.com.

Aside from the tour, we’ll be hopping on and off buses and the tram in Dublin, revisiting some places, checking out some heretofore unvisited sights, and refreshing our BAC in the pubs. 

Doesn’t look so promising for any theater events, since Easter season is typically changeover time for residential theater. And after the tour, we’ll hang out on Inishbofin where the nightlife centers on the pubs, especially since there is no Garda (police) station on the island and the pubs aren’t necessarily bound by enforced closing times.  And during the day there is hiking, birding, bicycling, sheep watching, and napping to hold our attention.