Ireland Highlights:
Ok I admit it, I failed at updating every day like I intended to, and some time has passed since the Ireland trip but here goes my best recollection.
The first night in Dublin, Mike, Steve, and I hopped in a cab to go to a tiny town called Malahide, and took our driver’s recommendation to go to a nice seafood restaurant right on the water. It was beautiful, and our first real taste of irish culture… I ate a nice seared ahi tuna, very fresh, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. My favorite quote of the night: Upon Steve’s close inspection and admiration for the label on that night’s wine, our waiter came by and asked if we wanted another bottle.
Steve: “Um, no we’re going to take it easy tonight, we just had a long flight across the Atlantic and we’re just tired…”
Waiter: “Sir, you do know what country you’ve landed in right? This is Ireland…. You can have more than one bottle between the three of ya!”
Galway/Oranmore
On the long drive to Oranmore, we stopped at Clonmacnoise, the most important 6th Century Christian monastery site in the Irish Midlands, and the final resting place for the Kings of Tara. This site was over 1400 years old, and it’s ruins really showed the many attacks on the monastery site by different parties and tribes. Today it stands as a very holy and solemn site dotted with high Celtic crosses overlooking the River Shannon.
The next three nights we stayed at the Oranmore Lodge hotel, which is the former ancestral home of the Blake-Butler family. The place was very B+B-ish, although much bigger, and the service was very nice. The hotel included a big lap-swimming pool, a steam room, sauna, gym, and jacuzzi; all of which I took advantage of. Right after settling into the hotel we had a full rehearsal with the group, which we all felt a bit shaky about our first performance which would be the next day in Kylemore Abbey.
Dinner that night was at Bunratty Castle, built in 1425, and it was a Medieval Banquet that started with live entertainment and mead, a honey wine, followed by a four-course meal which included curry soup, pork ribs, chicken, and well, the rest is a bit fuzzy as I was able to convince the ladies of the castle to let me have my own pitcher of mead. David Chase was dubbed the Duke, and was charged with the responsibility of being the guest of honor – thus the decision on food selection, quality and criticism, was on him. It was a fun night!
Connemara Region and Kylemore Abbey
We took a long drive out to Kylemore Abbey, a late 1800 castle built into a steep hillside and sitting on a lake, originally built as a gift by a wealthy man, Mitchell Henry for his wife who died shortly after of dysentery after a trip to Egypt. On the far bank of the lake is a small gothic chapel, dubbed the cathedral in miniature – This is where our first concert would be held. Logistically it was a nightmare as the chapel was narrow and thus we ended up stacking bassists 5-6 deep in the far back of the altar. The performance itself, well, just OK – many people including myself made some key mistakes, singing on rests, singing flat or missing pitch completely, etc… but it was nice to get the jitters out on the first day.
My favorite moment of that day: Our repertoire consisted of many different types of music from different times and regions of the world. Our first encore was an old Irish tune called “I know my love.” There was a sweet old Irish lady sitting in the front row directly in front of me, and her face exploded in joy when she recognized the tune and she started singing aloud, her face was just full of life and I could tell she was transported back to her childhood when she first learned that song, and it nearly brought me to tears, it was a very precious moment for me.
Cliffs of Moher
This geological attraction is one of the most popular in Ireland, it is on the western Irish coast, and the monstrous sandstone shear cliffs are absolutely breathtaking. One Facebook comment on my wall about the Cliffs of Moher alluded to the Princess Bride J. It was the first real test of my photographic skill on this trip, and I tried my best to capture the grandeur of it. Also this was the only meal on the trip I really did not enjoy. I guess a chicken sandwich is a little too daunting of a challenge, ha.
Roundstone
Easily my favorite place to stay, Roundstone is a tiny fishing village on beautiful Galway Bay, in Connemara County. It actually faces east across Galway Bay, but it give the false impression that you are looking across the Atlantic. Our group was so big that we were split up into 5 different B+B’s across the village, but we were within 5 minutes walking distance from each other.
The first night, we had a community music sharing night with the local people. I was simply stunned – the opening act was a group of very young local artists, some of which had turned professional and made a long trek home from Dublin to make the performance. Here’s a link to a video clip of them dancing and playing. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1563986581278&ref=mf
More later…..
Vincent Tedjasaputra, Ph.D. 
