In a previous post called The Highlands, I told the story of how I became interested in Celtic music in the 1980s and how that interest eventually culminated in a trip to Ireland in 2011. Since that post I have tried better to learn one of my favorite Irish folk songs, Down in Salley Gardens, on the keyboard. I recently made a recording of this song on the keyboards with the sounds of pan flute and recorder added later (to hear the recording follow the link:
Download Down in Salley Gardens-mix#1).
With the recording, the photo below, and a selection from my trip journal, I hope I have been able to convey a bit of what it felt like being in Ireland.
Blasket Islands, Ireland, 2011
Journal entry, September 25, 2011, Doolin, Ireland: "And then finally the end point: the head of the Dingle Peninsula and the furthest extent of Europe westward. As at Dunbeg, the winds were strong and constant. We parked and gazed toward the distant Blasket Islands. It was amazing how all of the peninsula was covered by stone-bordered fields, even the larger Blasket Island. New homes were also dotting the land, a strange modern/ancient mosaic of life ways. I thought of the fear the people living here must have felt upon seeing a distant Viking ship. And the sobering fact is that the human nature that allowed the Vikings to exist has never died. We must never let our guard down again."