Foghorn in Ireland–Guest Blogger Post #3

The Foghorn String Band’s Nadine Landry writes this Guest Blogger Post from Ireland. This is a post written on May 14 at the end of Fiddle Fair in Baltimore Co. Cork

Greetings from Baltimore in West Cork!

It's Monday and I'm sitting outside our house looking at the ocean with Sherkin island in the distance. Since our arrival here on Wednesday night, we have been blessed not only with gorgeous weather but with possibly the best festival to ever exist: Fiddle Fair.  Organized by Declan McCarthy and his family, the festival was celebrating its 20th anniversary and it was amazing! Caliber of musicianship and kindness was out of this world. Foghorn Stringband has played the festival a bunch of time and was actually the first place to play in Ireland back in 2003. Afternoon sessions in the square, concerts in the castle, main concerts in the marquis every night followed by very late wicked sessions till the wee hours!       [Videos below]

We had a great show on Friday night with Dirk Powell. Thanks to Con Kelleher for the great photo! .    Here’s a video of our show with Dirk. 

A definite highlight of the weekend was an all star roster performance in an outside amphitheater on Sunday afternoonLed by John Doyle and composed of Tim O'Brien, Kevin Burke, Dirk Powell, Mick Daly, Michael McGolrick, John Joe Kelly, Dermot Byrne, Caoimhín Vallely and Foghorn, the audience got a taste of what 13 people from different traditions can achieve with a 2 hour rehearsal! Fiddles, mandolin, banjo, eulian pipes, accordion and flute fueled by bodhran, guitar, triangle, piano and bass, it was a magical experience all around! We felt very honored to be sharing the stage with true living legends. 

Here's a video of all of us playing a set of old time/Irish tunes. 

It always is hard to leave Baltimore after the festival, but we made sure to stay for the Monday night, where the whole family and volunteers gather to unwind, share stories, songs, tunes and laughters around a fantastic meal.   

  But we cannot close the page on the Ireland trip without mentioning our time spent in Dingle Co. Kerry the weekend prior to Fiddle Fair. Invited to play the Féile na Bealtaine (Celebrations of May) we met amazing people and had a blast! We established our headquarters at the Courthouse, musician Tommy O'Sullivan's pub. Great pints, sessions all the time, great outdoor patio, this bar had it all!  We got to spend our time hanging out with Sligo siren, Cathy Jordan, amazing singer and bodhran player.

 

 

 

 

We loved Dingle so much that we decided to spend an extra day there and stayed with host extraordinaire Bernie Pháid. While part of the band got to go milk cows (contact with farmer established after a late night session in Belliferriter!!), I got my first Irish language course! Thanks to Bernie, I can now greet someone, ask them how they're doing, their name, where they're from and I can answer those questions too. I can also offer someone a drink and ask the bartender for two pints of Guinness and say thank you! 

Dingle will never be forgotten because that's where I got to realize one of my many long time dreams: holding a little lamb! 

Slán (goodbye) everyone and stay posted for our UK adventures! 

[Editor’s Note:  There are several more photos that belong in this post, however they did not transfer along with the text.   As soon as we can acquire them, we’ll add them into the story.]