The Road, Westport, & Galway City

In July and August 2005, I spent two weeks in Ireland. Most of it was with a tour group via a public radio station, before I stayed at a Dublin hostel for three days.

Very Irish buildings

We’ve left Ballyshannon and the music festival. Sigh. It was an intense festival and a lot of exploring during the day. Now we’re in the town of Westport, County Mayo.

Last night, we went down to Matt Malloy’s — the red-painted pub (the front façade is red). It’s the bar owned by one of the Chieftain’s.

We went to a back room where there was an empty stage, but a bunch of our group gathered around a table in a corner. When the music finally did begin around 10 pm, it was in the tiny room before this one, so we couldn’t really hear it, but we sat around drinking and talking for a while anyway. I wanted to listen to the music, but I also didn’t want to ditch the group.

When Dave and I turned to leave, a crowd of people blocked off the tiny room. We finally got a glimpse of the musicians, all seated at a booth. We turned around and found another exit, escaping into an alley with trash receptacles.

Before that, I shopped around town with Linda and bought a little Ireland [scribble] for my mom and a (cheap imitation) Tara brooch for myself. We went to a bookstore, and I bought four books — all centered around Ireland. We took…