In the early part of March 2007 my wife Joyce and I went to the Dingle Peninsula for what is turning out to be an annual outing. We landed at Shannon (check with Aer Lingus for good deals in the winter and early spring) and rented a car to drive to west Kerry and the town of Dingle.
The reason we picked Dingle in the first place is that there is a good possibility that one of my ancestors, Patrick O'Shea, came from there. But the reason we keep going back is the music and the people, We stay at John Benny Moriarty's Pub on Strand Street in one of several apartments that he and his wife Eilis Kennedy rent on a weekly basis. The accomodations are terrific (self-catering apartments, which means you can cook there - the grocery store is right around the corner) and the food in the pub is first class which is the norm for this part of Ireland.
Every night there is a session or music somewhere (the URL is dated, however) in this small town of abour 1500 people, even in the off-off season of January to March. John Benny's has three sessions a week, The Marina Pub (next door) has a nice open session on Sunday afternoon, and the Small Bridge Pub (An Droichead Beag) (has nightly music and you can often sit in on this music if you ask and especially i f you know someone. Resident musicians include Con Durham and Eoin Duignan - both All-Ireland pipers, Mike Herlihy, a retired teacher who owns a music shop on Main Street and plays the accordion, the Crickard Brothers, Phil and Mark who are wonderful fiddlers and Mike Shea, a bodhran player and possibly a relative of mine (as may be John Benny as his mother is a Shea.) Tommy O'Sullivan and the Begley family also live in the area and you might see them performing or just walking down the street. And this is just a sampling of the many musicians who make Dingle their permanent home.
