I walked into town from Renmore; another brilliant day of sunshine. “The Spaniards will be coming her for the fine weather” is my new quote. Shop street is buzzing. I get Sara’s old Meteor phone up and running for Georgia. I order a pint at Neactain’s and sit outside on the patio at an empty seat with Dave who had O’Connell’s pub on Eyre Square for 32 years. “It’s by the bus depot” I say. “The bus driver’s would come in between trips and have 5 or 6 pints before they went off to drive’. ‘ooooh’ thinks I, “as if the roads and the driving aren’t bad enough in this country”.
Back to Renmore to collect Georgia and we head to Taaffe’s to play with Michael Chan, Gerry Whelan, Baya, and Vitek from Poland (guitar). Next we take our sandwiches to the Spanish Arch by the Corrib River.
Georgia is quite concerned about arriving early to the Crane session as two of the musicians from the earlier session advised to arrive at half nine. But it is only half eight! Luckily Corrina McGarrigle and Barry McGuire are in town, over the moon to leave the kids with a sitter. We meet for one at The Salt House. At the Crane there is a singing session upstairs that won’t finish while a quay of musicians is waiting expectedly on the stairs.
While worth the wait as it is a mighty session. Typical for Galway City, of the 14 musicians 6 are Irish and 8 are foreigners. That being said many of those are living here now.
We have five friends in the pub:Rob, Mary, Sara, Barry and Corrina. Great craic!
Large curry chip with 2 deep fried sausages at Vinnie’s then the walk back to Renmore on a fine clear night.
