Story & Photos by Linda Williams Aber with Corey Aber

Some go to Ireland to play the links or to follow their ancestral linkage. Others go for the fine Irish linens and lace. As an Irish and British history major at Brown University, and a founding member of an Irish ballad group called “The Rumrats,” my son Corey had other reasons for asking me to spend an early summer week touring Ireland. His idea was to sightsee by song!

Armed with a case full of Irish songs and tin whistles, and a head full of the rich Irish history, we let the pipes call us from Cork to Kinsale, Clonakilty to Skibbereen, Dingle to Roundstone, Connemara to a grand finish with a rollicking pub crawl in Dublin.

In one week, we managed to see all the sights one is expected to see—Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, Gallarus Oratory, Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Connemara, Kylemore Abbey, and Easter Rising sites on both sides of the River Liffey—and we heard enough Irish music to last us a lifetime.

We arrived at the Cork airport, collected our luggage and a mid-sized rental car and headed for Blarney Castle and the “gift of gab.”

That Blarney Castle is a noted tourist spot should not deter the visitor stopping there for an “authentic” Irish experience. Indeed, the song “The Fine Groves of Blarney” elaborates on the effects of kissing the famed Blarney stone:

“There is a stone there that
whoever kisses,
Oh! he never misses,
to grow eloquent.
’Tis he who clambers,
To a lady’s chamber
Or becomes a member
of Parliament.”

Kissing the stone is no small feat! After climbing the spiral stone staircase to the top of the battlements, you’re required to hang down into an opening in the parapet while a local guide holds your feet. Grasping the iron rails, you lower yourself until your head is even with the stone to be kissed and pray that you won’t fall into the abyss. Still, it’s a small price to pay to gain the gift of eloquence!

After stopping in Blarney for a fish and chips lunch, a visit to the Blarney Woollen Mills, and the purchase of a handknit Aran fisherman’s sweater, we turned our car back to R600 and the tiny coastal town of Kinsale.

One of the oldest and most colorful medieval towns in Ireland, Kinsale’s history comes alive in the hilarious Ghost Tour of Kinsale. Operating from Tap Tavern, the first tavern in Kinsale, owned by the charming Mary O’Neill, this must-see evening of comic/historical street theater is led by Mary’s grown son Bryan, and street theater actor Sean O’Barry.

Our costumed guides entertained us with historical tales. The 90-minute tour ended back at Tap Tavern. Whether one raises a pint of Guinness or a soft drink of any kind, the pub scene is for anyone looking for good conversation.

Mary bade everyone a good night at midnight, and we followed her up the road to her Seagull House bed-and-breakfast, located next door to the old French prison, Castle Desmond.

In the morning, Mary served us a full Irish breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, brown bread, jam and juice, before we left Kinsale and headed to the town of Clonakilty, birthplace of the Irish revolutionary and folk hero Michael Collins. We found his house and took pictures of the bust of Michael Collins. Then we hurried on to Skibbereen.

Skibbereen was particularly hard-hit by the potato famine between 1845 and 1850. There is a tragic ballad about the famine in which a father explains to his son why he had to leave Ireland:

“My Son, I loved my native land
with energy and pride,
’Til a blight came over all my crop
and my sheep and cattle died
The rent and taxes were to pay,
and I could not them redeem
And that’s the cruel reason I left old
Skibbereen.”

The Skibbereen Heritage Center exhibit is well-conceived in its telling of how the famine affected the people, both rich and poor.

Dingle was our next stop. Checking in at Murphy’s Pub, where we’d reserved a room en suite (with bath) in the bed-and-breakfast accommodations above the pub, we dressed for dinner at the highly recommended Mystic Celt.

Chef Paul has a worthy project of defining and reviving Irish cuisine. He confided in us that the potato ruined Irish cooking. We followed the sounds of traditional tunes down the street to An Droicead Beag (The Small Bridge Bar). We found a place up close to the musicians, and it didn’t take long to meet Martin O’Connell on the button accordion and Michael on the guitar.

Between sessions, Martin and Corey got to talking and when Corey told him he played in a ballad group back home, Martin asked, “Will you sing a song for us?” Corey obliged with a song called “Molly Durkin.”

“I’m a daycent honest workin’ man
as you might understand
And I’ll tell you of the reason why
I left old Ireland
‘Twas Molly Durkin did it when she
married Jim O’Shea
And to keep my heart from breakin’
I sailed to Amerikay.”

As the session wound down, we all chatted about where the trip was taking us next. Martin recommended we stick around County Kerry longer because that’s where all the craic (pronounced “crack”) is. In Ireland, craic means good times, good music, good drink and good company. That, and the food, were not the only good things about Dingle. We stayed for three days and, with the sounds of the Pogues and the Dubliners ringing in our ears, took Slay Head Drive around the peninsula.

The hill fort at Dunbeg, which dates back to the first century B.C., was our first stop. The fort is on farmer Jim Long’s land. From inside the tiny ticket booth at the top of a hill dotted with sheep, he told us, “Tourists used to come in to look at the fort when I was out fishing. They’d forget to close the gate, and my sheep would get out. So now, instead of fishing, I sell tickets to the see the fort and the sheep!”

On our way out of Dingle, across the steep and breathtaking Connor Pass, we marveled at the great gorge and the hundreds of sheep walking on, across, above and below the road.

Dingle was a “foin” place, but we were heading for Dublin. From Galway, we drove up to Roundstone, where we talked with renowned bodhran maker Malachy Kearns.

Bodhran, pronounced BO-rawn or bo-RAWN, is the name of the traditional drum played in Irish folk music. As Celtic music grows in the U.S., the instrument is becoming increasingly popular among folk musicians, appealing to both the beginner and the advanced musician. Its history goes so far back that the only response to the question of its origin is that it has always been around. And that’s a sensible answer, considering that the drum is probably the oldest musical instrument in world history.

Corey picked up a second bodhran for his band, and we were on the road again. Stopping for photos of peat piles and moon surface-like scenery in Connemara National Park, we reached Dublin in time to check in at Jury’s Inn Christ Church.

Located in the heart of the section called Temple Bar, we were surrounded by landmarks of one of the other most written about events in Irish history, the Easter Rising. This memorable event was carried out in Dublin on Easter Monday by little more than 800 brave Irish nationalists.

There is a fine tour called The 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour, operated from the International Bar at 23 Wicklow Street. Our historian guide, Shane, showed us around the city, narrating the events of Easter week. We saw the buildings where these great men stood their ground while being shelled by British gunboats on the River Liffey, and saw the Dublin General Post Office where Padraig Pearse first proclaimed the Irish Republic.

After a day of history, a night of music seemed a fitting finish to a great trip. We took the musical pub crawl, which is not a bad introduction to Irish music for those unfamiliar with the fine tradition.

After the tour, we spent the rest of the evening at Oliver St. John Gogerty’s pub in the Temple Bar area. There was a great ballad/trad group (“trad” refers to instrumental tunes) playing that night. They played some of Corey’s favorite tunes, including ‘The Mason’s Apron” and the beautiful Phil Coulter song “The Town I Loved So Well.”

And as the evening drew to a close, we pondered the lyrics of Coulter’s song:

“There was music there
In the Derry air
Like a language
We could all understand...
Now the music’s gone,
But they still carry-on...
In the town I love so well.”

Ours was a brief musical and historical tour of Ireland, but we know we’ll be back to sing her songs and play her tunes in the towns we love so well.

for more information...

Traditional Irish Songs - Links to many Irish songs as sung in pubs, clubs & homes in Ireland.

Irish Toasts, Blessings and Proverbs - Irish prayers and quotations about Ireland. Famous Irish blessings and drinking toasts.

Traditional Irish Music Pubs - Listing of over 1000 bars.