I met up with Billy O’Connor for the session at the Crane. Also there was Anthony O’Connor. “John was the stable one in the family,. Anthony the wild one.” Billy, Lisa and the 2 daughters spent most of the summer in Canada this year and apparently it’s all they talk about. “When can we go back to Canada?” Billy & Lisa had thought perhaps in the future it would be nice to retire in Italy. Then they came to the beautiful mountain town of Nelson,B.C. “We’ll just stay here”.
Anthony told me a story. “It was 26 years ago. John & I were in the same pub but separately. I was at one end getting into a fight, I was aching to bring it on. Then in ten seconds I was rolling on the floor throwing punches and taking puches and bleeding profusely. Now john is not a fighter but he would always defend his brother. He came flying in from across the room, landed a few blows and pulled me outside into the car. I didn’t want to go to the hospital but he insistd and 20 stitches later I was done.”
The session was not as exciting as that but lovely music with George on pipes , Kevin Whelan on banjo, And a dozen others including Cathal Johnson (harmonica), Glen Watkins (flute) and Marta from Spain (flute).
