I just got back from a cruise †o the Caribbean on the Carnival ship "Legend", where I was performing with 7 other great Irish/ Scottish acts - Cathie Ryan with Hannika Cassell (Fiddle) and Greg Anderson (Guitar & Bouzouki), Ed Miller (brilliant Scottish folksinger), the Irish Balladeers from Scranton, PA (coal-mining and Molly Maguire songs), the Dady Brothers (multi-instrumentalists from Rochester, NY), Guranteed Irish (trad session band from Pittsburgh, PA), my old partner Tom O' Carroll from Dublin (Banjo, guitar, mandolin, whistle, bodhran and expert on the Irish Travellers), his wife Debbie (magician/storyteller), and the Alannah Boyle irish dancers.

We had a concert each night at sea, and workshop/lessons during the day.
The first workshop, all the musicians sat in a semicircle in front of the audience and, unplugged, talked, sang and played, songs in Gaelic, various county styles of playing. the history of the songs and more. The audience did not want the workshop to end more than 2 hours later.

The teacher of the Irish dancers taught simple set dances like the Walls of Limerick, which the "students" performed at the big session finale/concert on the last night.

I hosted a whiskey-tasting, as well as 2 pub quizzes.

The Balladeers did a fascinating workshop illustrated with songs about the Pennsylvania mining community and the Molly Maguires.

Cathy Ryan gave a talk on St. Brigid (the REAL patron saint of Ireland!) with music and song; Tom O'Carroll gave a talk on the Travelling community in Ireland complete with songs and stories, and Ed MIller gave a brilliant lecture on Robert Burns and his poems and songs.

All this was in the afternoons. After the concerts at night, we'd head to the top deck, break out the instruments and have a mighty session. Great craic was had by all.
So much so that we're doing it again in January 2007!
So don't tell me you can't have fun on a cruise.

Seamus