We went round Ireland last July, and spent a great Thursday evening just bar-hopping in Ennis.

All we did was walk down O'Connell Street until we heard something interesting, and went in; bought a half-pint of the red ale, and at the end of that half-pint just decided whether to stay and have another, or move on.

Some of the sessions were very tourist-orientated (hint: any session selling its own CD is going to be rubbish), some of them were too big and/or fiddle-dominated for my liking ... and on the third hop we found a brilliant flute player playing with three or four other people.

So we stayed there: got chatting with the other people in the bar, much ale was taken, there was the odd outbreak of dancing, at about 11:30 the front door was locked and the shutters pulled down but the session kept going and the bar was still serving, and we finally left of our own volition by the back door as things started winding down at about 2am. It was a perfect evening, exactly what we'd hoped would happen but didn't really think we'd actually manage to find.

We were told in there that the best nights for hearing decent music in Ennis are Thursday and Monday, the weekends are just too crowded and there's less action midweek.

As regards accommodation we booked into the Temple Gate Hotel on the night; if your budget doesn't stretch that far (we were camping for the rest of the fortnight so felt justified in paying for some luxury for the one night) I can't imagine that you'd have that much trouble in May, seeing as how we got there at 6pm on a July Thursday and had no problem at all.