Today the Inishfree Irish Music Tour bus took us up some precarious one lane roads to Ireland’s most southerly point, Mizen Head. It was sunny and windy, windier the further we ventured towards the tip of the penninsula.
Chris and Heather live in a small community just north of Kingston, Ontario. Chris, a talented guitarist and singer, is David Francey’s accompanist, and travels the world with him. Heather has joined Chris on this tour. She has heard tell of all the fun had on these Irish adventures and now she gets to experience it for herself. Their children, both teenagers now, are home with grandparents. It has been a while since she and Chris have been able to get away together like this.
After Mizen Head we went for lunch at the most southerly pub in Ireland, O’Sullivan’s in Crookhaven Harbour. Their chowder and crab sandwich come highly recommended. It seemed fitting to take this couple’s portrait here as they are from a smaller community close to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, what they call the “Wet” Coast.
Dan and Janette, participants on the Inishfree Irish Music Tour, learned of this tour from David Francey himself. David sang the praises of the tour, enticing them to sign up. Dan is a retired engineer and Janette, a retired nurse. Prior to this tour they spent a few days visiting family in Amsterdam.
After lunch we stopped at Barley Cove Beach. Fine sand, few waves, and fleeting sun enticed a few of us to wade into the Atlantic. I followed Irene into the water to take her portrait.
Irene is from northern Alberta. She had planned to participate in an Inishfree Irish Music Tour with her husband, Duane, a few years ago but he died before the trip. Inishfree Tours reached out to her recently and encouraged her to come. She is so glad she came. Irene and I share a lifelong devotion to the Edmonton Oilers. Back when Wayne Gretzky arrived in Edmonton as an underage player, Irene kept him out of bars until he was of age.
Ireland is dotted with prehistoric sites including a few altar wedge tombs. Our next stop was to the altar wedge tomb near Crookhaven Harbour. For 6000 years, it served as a portal to other worlds, a burial and sacrificial site, and more recently, as clandestine Catholic Church when Catholic practices were outlawed in the 17th century.
Paddy lives in County Clare, Ireland and has a long history with Inishfree Irish Music Tours. John Smith, an American singer songwriter thought it a good idea to invite some of his fans to join him in Ireland while he was on tour. The tour was a success and it was repeated. Paddy originally drove bus for the tour. Today, he still occasionally drives the bus, but he is also the owner of the company. What started as a once a year tour with one songwriter has become 30 tours a year with a wide variety of songwriters. His daughter returns to Ireland from America soon and he hopes she can play a larger role in the family business. I took Paddy’s portrait looking towards Mizen Head from the nearby altar wedge tomb.