Musical Pub Crawl - Dublin

Shortly after Whiskey and I got married, we headed off for a few days to Dublin.

Everyone has to go there!! There is so many things to do, places to go, restaurants to try, that I was annoyed that we only had a weekend there.

One of the highlights of our little stay in Dublin (apart from going to the Guinness factory) was the musical pub crawl.

The Musical Pub Crawl starts in a very famous pub in Dublin: Oliver St. John Gogarty's in the Temple Bar area. The first time that I went to Dublin I had heard of Temple Bar, but I thought it was actually the name of pub. Turns out that it's a whole area of Dublin, now dubbed the cultural quarter. It is only a few streets across, but it is crammed full of pubs, restaurants and things to do. The cobbled streets give it a very quaint and welcoming feel. The same with Gogarty's, which even during the week was absolutely heaving.

The musical pub crawl was headed by two local traditional musicians; Owen playing the Irish pipes and Mike on the guitar. Both guys had spent their whole lives in Dublin and the surrounding area, and after a few songs at Gogarty's they deliberately kept the group away from the tourist traps and showed us what real Irish pubs looked like. The next pub on our tour was the Ha'penny Bridge Inn, which was much like some pubs in Aberdeen. Basically what i would describe as an 'old manny pub', like the Prince of Wales or The Grill. Owen and Mike were excellent musicians, and played loads of traditional songs. Owen also talked about the Irish pipes for a bit, they are incredibly complicated as you use your fingers for the chanter (the stick bit that looks like a recorder) and your wrists to play notes on the drone!!!

What I liked the most about the pub crawl was that they got people involved in the music. Owen and Mike showed us that Irish music is an aural tradition that is passed from generation to generation by people playing to one another. Near the end of the night when everyone had had some time to neck a few pints, they asked for people to 'give us a song'. One Australian man sang a nice little song about ' an old rocking chair' or something, it was a good laugh. I ventured a song that I learned from my singing teacher called 'Durisdeer' by Lady John Scott. I was a bit pissed at this stage and a bit nervous about singing in front of these great musicians, so basically my singing was a bit pants but hey, I got through it.