The Flower Of Kilkenny - First collected and edited by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and recorded in the field in 1929 from the singing of Patrick Mooney [1856-ca.1945]
In 1968/69, I took a year to do some traveling overseas. I landed at Shannon Airport and went to the road and stuck out my thumb. It took me a couple of minutes to realise that I was on the wrong side of the road. The first person to pick me up asked, "How long have you been in Ireland?"
I told him that I'd just arrived less than an hour ago and he said, "Then you haven't had a Guinness, have you?"
I said, "What's a Guinness?"
He took me to a pub and bought me my first pint of Guinness. I took a sip and said, "There's something wrong with this beer. It tastes burnt."
He explained that it was supposed to taste like that and I'd learn to love it."
A week or two later, early in the morning, near Kilkenny, I was picked up by an elderly gent who asked me, "Are you goin' to the Fleadh?"
I said, "The what?" and he explained that a
Fleadh Cheoil was a traditional music festival and it was being held in New Ross.
I said, "Yes, I am going to the Fleadh."
As we were driving to New Ross, he asked if I had heard of a dulcimer. I had a recording by Jean Ritchie, playing the mountain dulcimer and when I told him he said, no that he meant a hammered dulcimer. He stopped the car and set up his dulcimer on the side of the road and played me a few tunes. That was my introduction to the hammered dulcimer by Mr. Andy Dowling (He pronounced it Doolin).
I spent the day with Andy and what a wonderful day it was. The town of New Ross was taken over by musicians and there were sessions in ever pub, church and schoolhouse in town.
Andy told me that he'd just had a chance to act in a movie starring Christopher Plummer that had been filmed in Kilkenny called
Lock Up Your Daughters. I have seen the movie four times. It's not a great movie, but I love seeing the townsfolk dancing in a circle around Andy as he plays his dulcimer.
I also saw uilleann pipes for the first time that day. Similar to Guinness, I had to be convinced that "They're supposed to sound like that and you'll learn to love them."
Here's a photo of Andy that I took in a parking lot in New Ross. That's Andy's car behind him. I'll always treasure the time I got to spend with this wonderful old man (probably younger than I am now).
And here's a photo of a younger Andy that I found in Google Images:
By the way, I love Guinness now and it's my regular drink at our local pub. I am also married to a hammered dulcimer player.
Here's Maggie on dulcimer, me on mandolin, our friend Al Kirby on guitar and our son Darcy on bass at a festival in Aylmer, Ontario.