Dublin Irish Festival 2013 – Part á dho

It’s Sunday at the Dublin Irish Festival and we couldn’t have a more perfect day for dance, music, and culture. The temps are in the mid 70s with low humidity and lots of puffy white clouds in the sky.
There were many outstanding bands playing today, but two really stand out in my mind: The Willis Clan and Gaelic Storm&lt

The Willis Clan is a group of children all from the same family, ranging in age from 21 to 11. The older seven brothers and sisters form the current band. There are 5 children younger than 11 who are traveling with the clan. They also have 1 cousin who helps out on guitar. Not only are these children musically talented, they all do Irish Step Dance but many have also ranked in world competition. The lead singer’s voice reminded me a lot of Allison Kraus and she was fantastic.

The second group was one of my very favorite bands: Gaelic Storm. Their music is mixture of high energy rock songs and traditional Irish music. The best part are the humorous songs like Johnny Tarr and Darcy’s Drunken Ass. You can see the twinkle in Pat Murphy’s eyes as he’s singing these songs. Most of the band stays pretty much the same over the years, but the Fiddle player changes pretty frequently. The young lady playing this year was very good.

I’ve got to get a press pass somehow so that I can get better images of the performers up close and with a better angle. Though I have to admit that I saw some of the images taken by the photographers who worked the festival and in some cases they had really tough angles to shoot from. Don’t get me wrong, I saw some amazing images. I just think I could bring in top images, too.

Three-Legged Mare Goodness

My Guinness, My Goodness

OK, so tonight I got to go back downtown to the Arena District and watch the Blue Jackets play again. We had free tickets courtesy of the Nationwide Insurance company and my friend Bob treated us to the game. After the game, we stopped at a wonderful pub called “The Three-Legged Mare.” If you are ever in the Columbus Arena District and you are looking for a great place for a drink, this is the place.  Now, the best part is that you can have your Guinness either American or English.  If you choose American, the temp of the beer is 32 Degrees Farenheit (0 Celsius).  If you choose English, it’s 48 Degrees Farenheit (9 degrees Celsius).  Now, I tried one American and one English and I have to say that the English one goes down a little smoother than the American. Maybe it’s mental, or maybe it truly is a little better temperature for Guinness.  I’d like you to try it out and let me know what you think.

Since this was an Irish pub, let’s do that in gaelic:

OK, mar sin anocht fuair mé dul ar ais chuig an Dúiche Downtown Arena agus féachaint ar an Jackets Gorm imirt arís. Bhí orainn saor ticéid le caoincheadna cuideachta Árachais Nationwide agus mo chara Bob cóireáilte dúinn chun an cluiche. Tar éis an cluiche, stop muid ag teach tábhairne iontach ar a dtugtar “an Mare Trí-legged.” Má tá tú riamh i gCeantar Arena Columbus agus má tá tú ag lorg áit iontach í do deoch, is é seo an áit. Anois, tá an chuid is fearr gur féidir leat do chuid Guinness ceachtar Meiriceánach nó i mBéarla. Má roghnaíonn tú Mheiriceá, tá an teocht na beorach 32 Céimeanna Fahrenheit (0 Celsius). Má roghnaíonn tú Béarla, tá sé 48 Céimeanna Fahrenheit (9 céim Celsius). Anois, rinne mé amháin Meiriceánach agus ceann i mBéarla, agus caithfidh mé a rá go dtéann an ceann Béarla síos beagán smoother ná an Mheiriceá. B’fhéidir go bhfuil sé mheabhrach, nó b’fhéidir go bhfuil sé fíor teocht beagán níos fearr le haghaidh Guinness. Ba mhaith liom tú a triail a bhaint amach agus lig a fhios agam cad a cheapann tú.

Sláinte agus táinte

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