Jim, your story of the bow-rosiner struck a chord with me. A few weeks ago, our ceilidh band did a cowboy and Indian themed barn dance for a company Christmas party in a local pub (you know the story - the Cumberland Square Eight is announced as coming from Cumberland County, Ohio), and it was a free bar. All the locals went home and donned Stetsons, cowboy boots, anything that they could get back to the bar correctly dressed for free drink.

I have to disagree with your specific comment about Doolin, on the one occasion I played in O'Connor's, in that the band (and they were a band, to be fair) were very welcoming and let me sit in with them. I didn't find out I had reached the zenith of my playing career until later, when I was told the bloke playing the fiddle was Tommy Peoples.

The chowder was to die for, too.