The Dingle Pub

Wednesday Night

You’ll remember from yesterday that we were off to the Dingle Pub at 8:30 PM. Here’s probably more than you probably want to know about the Dingle Pub. (You can always scroll down.) It’s our Dingle local – the place we go first and last. When we first came to Dingle, the pub was owned and operated by Eddie, a transplanted Londoner. He’s in his eighties now and rarely comes into the pub anymore, but he’s full of great stories when he does come in. Tom Geaney, Eddie’s son-in-law, took over the pub early in the 2000’s when Eddie retired to a life of leisure. Tom has become a good friend. His daughter Suzie recently married and is pregnant with the first of the next generation. She is often bartending at the Pub. His son, David, is a five-time Irish Dance Champion. David, who both bartends and serves tables, has appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and has toured several times in the US. He has his own show (Velocity) that he produced and stars in on his tours. He, along with another Irish dancer, have also toured with and accompanied Cherish the Ladies. Interesting story (to me anyway) – the last thing we did before beginning pandemic isolation in March 2020 was attend a concert by Cherish the Ladies at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. We chatted with David after the show. That was the last appearance for the touring group as the rest of the tour had been cancelled because of Covid. They escaped out of the US that very night back to Ireland just before international flights were shut down. We joked with David that we would see him at the Dingle Pub in a couple of months on our May 2020 planned trip. That trip was, of course, cancelled and rescheduled to October 2020. That was also subsequently cancelled and rescheduled until October 2021. Cancelled yet again. Finally we are back, baby, we are back!

Richie was in fine form singing. Here’s an excerpt from the song Rattlin’ Bog followed by a clip of David dancing. Fair warning – you can hear me singing along in both videos – try to ignore that if you possibly can. And there is a uTube video of the Irish Rovers performing the entire Rattlin’ Bog here.

Thursday

Not much happening today. We walked together into town and did a few errands. We had a beer sitting outside at Paudie’s Bar, a new spot for us.

Weather was nice. For dinner we did a return visit to Fenton’s Restaurant. The owner’s sister-in-law lives next door to us – it’s a small town! The Fentons are former fishermen and there is a boat over the bar. Elaine had calamari followed by local scallops. I had oysters (as usual) and rack of lamb. We shared dessert.

It being a very quiet day in Dingle, we didn’t expect music at O’Flaherty’s, but, since we parked right outside, we went in. There was a group of four people from Tennessee performing – O’Flaherty’s encourages outside musicians to perform. They were good. And Fergus, as normal, joined it. He plays lots of instruments extremely well – tin whistle, flute, fiddle, banjo, etc. But he also has a great voice. Here are clips of the group from Tennessee followed by Fergus O’Flaherty singing Elaine’s favorite, Dingle Bay.

It was almost midnight when we got home. Friday is supposed to be our first really bad day – lots of rain. But the weekend forecast is good. Unless something special happens, the blog will be dark tomorrow and back on Saturday.