Just back from Ireland with a brain fried by merriment. All of our gigs at the singers clubs around the country ended with "lock-ins," i.e. the doors were locked at closing time, the curtains were simply drawn and everything continued. We left most places about 3am... and that was night-after-night. Martin Ryan's South Roscommon home club turned out a number of octogenerians (including the publican); they were every bit as active as the rest of the crowd, no less talented and a great pleasure to hear.

There was a rare 5-string banjo session at a restaurant at Malin Head at the northernmost point of Ireland led by Alison MacMorland and Bob Conroy. The adjacent pub/garage - with 6 seats and standing room for 18 more - had a singing session attended by many of Ireland's finest singers.

Hoof-and-Mouth is a great threat to Ireland. At the time of our leaving, there had been one incident reported in Northern Ireland and another in the Republic within the same border area. We had one concert cancelled and another considerably curtailed as a result. In other places, the rooms were packed so that you could hardly turn around.

There was a considerable amount of interest in Folk-Legacy's "Irish in America" CD and we are very thankful and very gratified. The Irish distributor will be getting copies to the media over the next few weeks and we'll see what feedback there is.

The CD has been played quite a bit on Clare FM radio in Ireland which has excellent programming at 7pm (local time) most weekday evenings. Caroline, Sandy and Rob Paton have gotten play copies off to many US and Canadian stations. If you haven't heard the CD yet, look for us on the radio or scroll above to Sandy's first post, click and take a listen. Thanks.

I'll get back a little later after I get to the supermarket and pay a few bills.

All the best,
Dan Milner