Day Four: Music all Folk-ing day! 🎶

Just a quick addendum to yesterday’s post: we had tickets Saturday night to one of the headliners Damien Dempsey. It wasn’t the kind of music we were into that night and found a place just up the street, called The Crane Bar, specializing in trad(itional) Irish music.

The tiny upstairs room was packed, but Katey is nothing but teeth and elbows when she wants something bad enough and we were soon seated right near the musicians.

Fast forward to ….

Raise your hand if you were up until 2AM after a little snacky-snack at a chippy (little stand that sells fries). 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️

After a “lie in” due to our late night, we handed back to Monroe’s for an absolutely fantastic concert with two traditional Irish musicians, Padraig Jack and Seán Keane.

Nerdy side note: we saw on the weather that there is a blight warning. Steve looked it up, and if you know anything about Irish history, the Great Famine from 1845-1852 was caused by this same blight, a mold that grows on potatoes. Between the deaths from starvation (12-14%) and fleeing the country (12-15%), the Famine decimated the population. Katey's great grandmother Kate Barrett emigrated from Ireland during a time when 50% of people born here left! It's no wonder that many Irish Folk songs song of leaving the homeland. Sean Keane sang a beautiful balled called "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears" which apparently tells the true story of Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl from County Cork who set sail from Cobh Harbour and, on January 1, 1892, became the very first immigrant ever processed through Ellis Island in New York.

From there, we went downstairs to the tavern and enjoyed a traditional Sunday roast.

We watched two more bands before heading out to a place well-known in Galway for its trad sessions: Tig Coili. Katey once again “teeth and elbowed” our way to a couple seats at the bar despite the wall-to-wall crowd.

Given how packed the place was, it was a little hard to hear the musicians (they shush people at The Crane Bar!), so we left after about an hour. Some friends recommended that we try a restaurant called King’s Head, so we went and shared some soup and their signature fish and chips. Everything was outstanding! 

We’re back at the hotel now, wrapping up a little early but wanting to get an early start tomorrow when we’re going on a little driving adventure to Connemara! 🚗