Dublin to Westport

It's quite unbelievable....our third day of glorious sunshine, the locals can't believe it themselves..where's it coming from, California perhaps....
We had an early start on Sunday morning from our Dublin hotel, the Alexander, and were amazed as nobody seemed awake and on the streets as we drove around the city, literally, hardly a car to be seen in the City center. We headed out towards the West and as our driver informed us, Athlone Castle was closed on Sundays, he was taking us to Trim Castle in Co. Meath. It turned out to be far more impressive both in size and reputation. It is an old Norman keep, the biggest in Ireland taking three years to build, in 1177. We had a wonderful tour guide who informed us that the castle had been used to film several scenes in Braveheart, the exterior being the seige of York Castle and the interiors were used for the London scenes...we saw the window where King Edward "Longshanks", chucked his son's boyfriend out to his demise four floors below...also the gallows Mel choked on !!
The history and description of life in the castle back then was facinating, including such tidbits as the household excrement was saved not only as fertilizer but also stirred regularly by one particular chap who would then daub the item onto a section of the outer walls for all to see, and supposedly the darker the colour, the richer the diet and showed their wealth and superiority off to the world....anyway, as I was saying...
After that wonderful attraction, we drove to Mullingar, the largest town in the Midlands and stopped in for lunch at the Druid's Chair, dating from 1609...great food...then on to Westport. Our driver, John, is truly a wealth of information and has a great sense of humour, what can I say, he's from Dublin...we were well entertained all the way.
It was getting dark when we reached the Castlecourt Hotel and checked in...people baling out everywhere to grab dinner somewhere, I never ate, didn't have time...I was heading for the sesiun (music session) at Geraghty's Pub in the town. There were three other musicians, locals, and I received a warm welcome...I just brought the mandolin as I did not want to sing much, I've been nursing a chest cold for over three weeks and it's really annoying and affecting my voice...we had a great time and were alerting some of the locals to join us tonight for my show in same pub..
I was too tired to write last night and decided to leave it 'til now...
After the usual hearty Irish breakfast this morning, we drove out to the northern end of Connemara, through Delphi, Ashleigh Falls, and Killery Harbor....Ireland's only fjord measuring eleven miles long...by lunchtime we reached Roonagh Pier next to Louisburg and took the ferry to Clare Island, ancient seat of the seafaring O'Malley clan...it's the largest of the 365 islands in Clew Bay and we spent a few hours out there that included a visit to a Sistercian Abbey from the 13th Century...reputed to have the tomb of Graunaile, Grace O'Malley our pirate Queen ancestor from the 16th Century, more about her..... Google her, I'm too tired right now !
The sun was splitting the rocks out there all day and we stopped into the little hotel on the island for a bite, and all they had was tea, coffee and scones...of course they had all the booze you could drink, and , many did imbibe....a seventy year old woman, one Irish Coffee and she started singing and asking where the bathroom was, at the same time...
We got back to the hotel about five and I had an 8.30 soundcheck...sucked down a delicious dinner of salmon and hake in a white sauce with all the trimmings and walked to the gig...only in Ireland...
The great news is that everyone showed up, there were at least twenty extra chairs set up for the show and the house was packed...I did the first set solo, then invited the local musicians to join in. We were also joind by a lovely young lady from Hungry on the violin and a great night was had by all...a complete success and a terrific end to a wonderful, beautiful day.
We're off down the Westcoast tomorrow to Killrney...wil catch y'all up tomorrow night...