A loaded Month

July was an incredible and action packed month for me on my journey of discovery in Ireland. The first Amazing thing was the Willie Clancy festival in Miltown Malbay Co. Claire. After a nervous audition, during which hundreds of children less than half my age played tunes at a standard and speed I can only dream of, I was fortunate to be placed in a class with two spectacular fiddlers of my own generation. Caoimhin ni Reiligh, and Oisin Mac Dermot. Caoimhin is from Dublin and has what I would describe as a very rhythmic and creative fiddle style. Oisin plays great tunes with very clear crisp notes and plenty of variation. Both fiddlers were great teachers and I think their styles were suited to the Claire fiddle tradition which seems to encourage variation and technique. I made plenty of friends at the festival from Ireland, America and even Japan. It feels great to be part of such an important and fun cultural movement that is popular all over the world. Here is a picture of myself with the great fiddlers themselves.

After the festival sadly ended (I wish festivals like these never did), I got a lift from my friend Jim to my next volunteer farm in the Slieve Aughty mountains of County Galway. Sadly, on the way my camera was stolen and I have to resort to the camera on my phone now. The farm I arrived at was in one of the most pristine and remote places in Ireland. It was a magnificent location for a terrific farm that was both comfortable and sustainable. There were plenty of other volunteers there for me to talk to and the women who ran the farm was remarkable. Eileen Thomas came from Scotland. Her father was a Welsh Coal miner and she is a speaker of the Gaelic that is spoken in the North West of Scotland. She has a wealth of information about traditional herbs and edible plants, and in three years she had transformed an empty run down stone house into a beautiful natural home complete with donkeys, ducks and fun projects for travelers like myself. My jobs were a little garden work, caring for the animals, picking berries, building recycled cement structures and re-constructing an old caravan into a habitation for other volunteers. Here is the restoration I did:

And inside:

And, here are my friends:

Here is a picture of the house itself:

A friend from Willie Clancy Week, Bridget, lived close to the farm in a town called Burr in Co. Offaly. We spent a weekend walking around the beautiful Slieve Bloom mountains and then after my two weeks at the farm were up we went to Achill Island County Mayo together for the Scoil Acla festival of music and traditional arts. I had a great time with Bridget. She is a three week old learner of the tin whistle, and a near fluent speaker of Irish. At school Acla I took fiddle classes from another young great fiddler named Liam O'Connor. Liam is doing a masters degree on folk tradition in Ireland through trinity college Dublin, and he is a powerful fiddler from a family of traditional musicians. In the afternoons Bridget and I went to Irish language classes together where we read Sean Fhocails (century's old Irish sayings) from the Achil Islands. A week with Bridget was both a lovely and rewarding time with a very intelligent and compassionate person. That's her second from the left:

Bridget went to Spain to walk the Camino Santiago de Compastela, and I have been here in my new favorite haunt, Glenn Cholm Cille, for the past week at a music school featuring the Donegal Fiddle traditions. My classes this time were with a local musician named Derek McGinly. The classes were much smaller and Derek is a great teacher both patient and good tempered. He plays great with other musicians, and he is very good at giving people individual attention. It feels great to be back in the Glenn. After being here in May and coming back, this place is beginning to feel like home. It is quiet and peaceful here, but there is always plenty to do and plenty of artists around to soak up the natural beauty of this special area. This weekend begins my first of three weeks of Irish Language classes at Oideas Gael. I am sure that my time here will be priceless as I make the most out of each special day here. There is so much to experience, create and learn here in this small little town. Finally, a picture of a double-rainbow I saw on Achil Island while I was sitting on a bench watching Bridget swim in the ocean. Rainbows always seem to catch me by surprise.