Last night, Lynette managed to find an Irish music show to attend.  Here's her story:

The concert was held at Siopa Ceoil, the Dingle Music Shop at 7.30pm on Saturday night. Normally the pub concerts started at 9.30pm which was too late for tourists who were getting up early each day. The music shop is small but managed to cram in enough seats for 40-50 people.

The accordian player was an ex school teacher and he introduced Moira, a doctor of music who played the fiddle and the viola. Then came the guitar player, a doctor of medicine, who also played the long aluminium whistle and was the storyteller. They played traditional Irish music with a few Scottish tunes added for good measure. Excellent artists and a great storyteller.

There was an interval after 40 minutes where we chatted outside while drinking Irish coffee. In the audience there people from France, Holland, Spain, USA and, of course, NZ. When filling out the visitors' book I discovered that the person next to me was Tom Reed from Philadelphia who was there with his wife. What a small world. I guess all the “Reeds” have a common linkage somewhere.

After the interval we were told that there was a special guest. It turned out to the the world champion of Irish dancing. What a fabulous dancer. His feet moved like crazy and at times it looked like there were no bones in his ankles as they were so flexible. We were thrilled.

Then we heard from a local man who organized the boat trips to the Blasket Islands which are further out in the Atlantic Ocean from the Dingle Peninsula. He was lucky enough to be there at the time the last generation of islanders were living on the islands. They were an extremely hardy and independent lot but eventually numbers dwindled and they needed to be evacuated to Dunquin on the peninsula. One 80 year old man who was nearly blind refused to go and spent the whole of one winter entirely alone. The islanders lived from fishing and any food crops which they managed to grow which could be protected from the savage weather metered out to the island at times. The men rowed the boats out to gather fish and as a result their forearms and wrists were incredibly strong and if they took hold of your hand or arm you could not move until they had released their grip. Dingle people could always recognize Blasket folk because they always walked in single file which was the way they had to walk on the island because of the narrow paths. When Irish researchers learnt about the Blasket Islanders and visited them they found that because they had been isolated they still spoke the purest Irish even though many of them could not read and write and all their songs, stories, etc were passed down verbally from generation to generation. A school was set up and following generations were educated.

Then it was back to the music again. One of the items played was a tune that Moira discovered which dated back to 1852. More music and stories and then back came the great Irish dancer. He gave so much each time and we were greedy and, if we had had the chance would have asked for more and more until he collapsed.

The Irish music concert started with just Saturday nights and they became so popular that they are now four times each week until October.

This doctor of medicine gets his kicks from playing his guitar and tin whistle and telling stories.

This happy fellow kept us entertained with his squeeze box.