Coming back from the pier, I was hungry and got ready to go down the pub called Gus O’Connors. After having a good burger, I wheeled my way to the pub’s bar, and this was a true challenge.
The pub was packed.
I made my way round to the second entrance, thinking it would be easy. It wasn’t. I got stuck between the narrow doors and to make things worse, an amputee was trying to get into the bar too, wheels and crutches what a combination! In the bar, I found that it would not be easy to move anywhere. But to my good luck, the amputee guided me to what he later called, “the best seat in the house.”
I would definitely have to agree, because I was sitting in the front of the audience listening to a customary spontaneous performance, enjoyed by listeners in O’Connor since 1890. The performance featured the five iconic Irish instruments: the fiddle (a high-pitched violin), bodhran (a hand drum), accordion, flute, and banjo. All together, these instruments made the rhythms that I became accustomed to hearing as traditional Irish music on my Pandora station. I must say that soon enough the amputee joined the make-shift performers and became the vocalist of the group, singing three songs in a low tenor voice. My favorite and consequently the last song of his night was “Song for Ireland.” The traditional music that I listened to on my first night in an Irish pub gave a glimpse of the exemplary importance of the arts for the Irish. In fact, Ireland is called by many, the isle of scholars, poets, song, and imagination.
Ireland is definitely my kind of place.
This was a perfect first day and night in Ireland. I can’t wait for more…
Scroll down to read and maybe sign…
“Song for Ireland”
Walking all the day
near tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver wings they fly,
They know the call for freedom in their breasts,
Saw Black Head against the sky
Where twisted rocks they run down to the sea
Living on your western shore,
Saw summer sun sets, I asked for more,
I stood by your Atlantic Sea,
And I sang a song for Ireland
Drinking all the day,
In old pubs where fiddlers love to play,
Saw one touch the bow,
He played a reel that seamed so grand and gay,
I stood on dingle beach and cast,
In wild foam for Atlantic bass,
Living on your western shore,
Saw summer sunsets, I asked for more,
I stood by your Atlantic Sea,
And sang a song for Ireland
Talking all the day,
With true friends who try to make you stay,
Telling jokes and news,
Singing songs to while the time away,
Watched the galway salmon run,
Like silver dancing, darting in the sun,
living on your western shore,
Saw summer sunsets, I asked for more,
I stood by your Atlantic Sea,
And I sang a song for Ireland
Dreaming in the night,
I saw a land where no-one had to fight,
Waking in your dawn,
I saw you crying in the morning light,
sleeping where the falcons fly,
They twist and turn all in your air-blue sky,
Living on your western shore,
Saw summer sunsets, I asked for more,
I stood by your Atlantic sea,
And I sang a song for Ireland
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