
Hello everyone!
We are back from our Ireland trip, and it was FANTASTIC!!
See attached pictures! More to share later!
This was a trip planned by the Walker Street Fiddlers, a group that I formed and have been enjoying for about 7 years!
After being encouraged by several members of the group several years ago, I began the planning process for the trip when I went to Ireland 2 years ago and made contacts with musicians, and arranged for the musical experiences. Teresja and I found a tour guide, and with incredible organization effort from Teresja, and gigantic efforts by the kids as we held as many fund raising events as possible all during the last school year, we somehow made this amazing trip a reality!
We had 33 people on the tour bus, and 2 families traveling with us in private cars. We arrived at Shannon Airport on July 27th, and returned on August 5th, for a total of 10 days in Ireland. We stayed at youth hostels, and although not 4 star hotels, we were well fed, and we were connected with many interesting people, who also became appreciative audiences.
Included along with myself were Teresja, Meghan, and Sam, and 9 other family groups, three teenagers without parents, and Holly Ross, a teacher, all from Greensboro! Find a complete list of participants below!
Everywhere we went people loved our music, and when all 16 of us lit in to a tune, we made an impact! We played informally with many musicians while we were there, observed world class dancers, singers, and instrumentalists, performed several concerts, and did lots informal playing, busking at the drop of a hat (or usually a violin case)!
The last playing we did was at our gate at the Boston Airport, and after about ½ hour of playing we had raised another $20.00, and had lightened the load of many weary travelers, ourselves included. The applause reverberated through the entire gate area!
The center piece of our trip was a concert that we gave at at place called, in Irish, the Teach Ceoil, pronounced Cha Ceeoole. It means “music house”, and it is run by a man I met in nearby Letterfrack, Michael O’Neill. He has a group similar in nature to ours that gives a performance every Tuesday night in the summer season, called Seisiu’n.
The performance was held in a quaint little building, in Renvyle, within sight of the ocean, and just about as far west in Ireland as you can go without getting wet. We did get wet, as the weather was a bit cold with a fine mist the night we first attended.
We were blown away by their performance; which included about 9 fantastic young step dancers, ages 10 to 20 or so, several of whom had won “All Ireland” titles in their age division. There were three young lady fiddlers, ages about 14 or so, and there was a professional group of musicians, including flutes, fiddles, an accordionist, pianist, and a fellow who played guitar and banjo. Their performance was a variety of dancing, usually duos or trios, singing by the adults, and incredible instrumental performances. There was one young fellow, about age10, I think, who played expert fiddle and whistle, and was also an award winning dancer. His Dad was the leader of the group, and was described to me as among the top Irish traditional flutists.

After their concert, there was a 15 minute break, during which the chairs were put back against the wall. The place held 110 people, and there was a standing room only crowd this night. Michael proceeded to lead a “sing song” which was kind of an “open mike” experience. The Walker Street Fiddlers performed for about 15 minutes, as a taste and advertisement for the concert we were scheduled to give the next night, in the same venue. This was very exciting, and as Michael said, we were “very well received”!! After that, Michael taught everyone a simple step dance, and the rest of the night was spent with volunteers from the audience singing songs, and there was a huge variety.
The next night, after Michael interviewed me on the local radio station (which is run by the school where he works, in Letterfrack), we performed our own concert to a bit smaller, but very enthusiastic audience. Michael led another “Sing Song” following our concert, and we ended up with a lot of solos by members of our group. Along with some beautiful singing by Meghan Parrish and Sara Todd, a good fiddle tune by Sam Mills, we also had incredible classical performances by Leon Copeland and Max Speiwak! A real highlight was Sam Mize playing Turkey in the Straw, holding his fiddle behind his back. Yes, that’s what I said. Only the Mize family had seen this before!!! Talk about fun!!
We did a lot of sight seeing, enjoying everything from hiking to the top of Diamond Hill in the Connemara National Forest, touring Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara and the famous Kylemore Abbey in County Galway, with its’ incredible garden, to Sam Parrish being invited to play in a informal rugby match on the beach at Achill island, to pitch and putt golfing, to getting soaked by ocean spray on a wild ferry ride to Inishere Island, in 6 to 8 foot swells, shopping in several towns and tourist places, and helping Brendan, host at our last hostel, the Doorus House, outside of Kinvara, with a 3 hour work session, helping to clear 100 year old (or more) ivy off an ancient wall, and setting the ivy on the pile for the bonfire that night! The harder we worked, the bigger the bonfire was going to be. Our spirits were not dampened when the Irish rain came!!!
There are so many stories and literally 1000’s of pictures among all the cameras that were along, and we will soon be putting a journal together for everyone’s enjoyment, with pictures and stories, hard copy, and on line. We will also be posting some pictures very soon on our blog, http://www.walkerstreet.blogspot.com/
Thanks to all who supported this trip in any way, and I hope you enjoyed this rather quick description of our trip! Look for the journal to be sent your way as well!
Cheers,
Scott Walker
Director, Walker Street Fiddlers
The Tour Bus Travelers:
The Mize family: Bobby, Elizabeth, Sam, Charlie and Lily
The Walker/Parrish family: Scott, Teresja, Meghan and Sam
The Bonner/Wulk family: Gail, Sheri, Kaitlin, and Emma
The Spiewak/Gutzwiller family: Alan, Patricia and Max
The McAlister/Corcoran family: Caroline, Abby and Allie
The George family: Ben and Calliope
The Todd family: Judy and Sara
The Santana family: Laura and Crystal
The Deterding family: Liz and Kenneth
Brett Ikenberry
John Pendergraft
Dylan Williams
Holley Ross
Sophie and Leon Copeland
Traveling separately:
The Walton family: John, Beth, Clara, and Hugh
The Mills Family: Laura, Barb, Liz? and Sam
thewalkerfamilyband@earthlink.net
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