Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir Sings at the Danny Mann Pub in Killarney on April 10

The second performance in Ireland is just around the corner: On Saturday, April 10, at 7 pm the Danny Mann Pub in Killarney will turn into a performance venue for the travelers of the Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir. Incantato Tours proudly presents this very special and traditional venue:
The Danny Mann is a hotel pub that is renowned as one of the best centers for Irish music, singing and dancing in all of Killarney. Here you will find locals and visitors alike joining with the band to sing together. You might be lucky enough to hear a joke or a tale from long ago. The Danny Mann Pub has brought traditional Irish music and good times to Killarney for over 70 years.

Here is a video of the Santa Barbara City College Choir performance at Danny Man during their 2008 Incantato Tour to Ireland:

Day 4

There will be no pictures, just yet, from today, but they will be coming, for there were many taken. (There might even be a second post from today from Sharon Steingass!) We left Galway this morning and began meandering through "The Burren", an area around Shannon. Our first significant stop was at the Cliffs of Moher, and in this case the word word significant is not strong enough. It is a spot on the western Atlantic shore of Ireland that drops off 700+ feet into the ocean below. From the bluffs you can see centuries of sedimentary deposits. Atop the bluffs sit several ancient settlements, including a castle that was built by the O'Brien family at one point.

Stops after that included Adare and a pass through the city of Limerick, before we arrived in our new temporary home, Killarney. It is a beautiful city in Kerry County, and we look forward to a day touring County Kerry tomorrow, culminating with a performance here in town at the Danny Mann Pub. We rehearsed tonight when arrived, so we are gearing up for our exciting performances to come in Cork and Dublin. But for tonight, it's "Goodnight Killarney!"

Day 3

Today was a non-singing day, as we headed out to visit the unbelivably stark and beautiful Aaran Islands. A short bus trip took us to our ferry. The Islands are about a 45 minute ride across the ocean, viewable from the Galway shore. On most days, the view might be obscured by fog or rain, but once again, we were greeted by partly sunny skies, and the ride over was calmer than the ride to Catalina Island on most days.

Again, many pictures are necessary to describe this place, and uploading is very difficult, so watch for more pictures later. But even if I uploaded 100 pictures and gave it ten pages of prose, it would be impossible to capture for you. It is basically a large limestone rock, nine miles long and two miles wide. Centuries ago for some reason, the first inhabitants chose to leave the main part of Ireland to live here and eke out a hardscrabble living based largely on fishing.

But in order to plant a few crops here and there and provide a modicum of grass for their livestock, the inhabitants created their own topsoil by mixing sand from the beaches with seaweed. The ground was then separated by rock fences into small patches so that their animals would have a bit of shelter from the vicious winds that can wrack the island. The result is a landscape that is so bleak to be almost lunar, with rock fences separating the landscape as far as the eye can see, with just a few green patches and low thatch homes dotted around. It is stunning, and unbelievable. One way to get an overview of it is to go to Google Maps, and type in "Aaran Islands." The satellite image shows very clearly the fences criss-crossing the landscape.

We visited the "Seven Churches", a site of ruins dating back to the 8th century that was the site of a Roman Catholic monastery, one of the safe havens for Christianity during the Dark Ages. We also visited the clifftop semi-circular fort of Dun Aengus, an ancient Celtic fort that backs onto a 300-foot drop down into the Atlantic ocean. The tourists walk up to about 8 feet away, then get on their bellies to crawl to peer over the edge down into the crashing surf below. It is not for the faint of heart or the fearful of heights.

It was quite a day. Tomorrow we head out to more sight-seeing on our way to Killarney, where we will rehearse for our next concert. But we will sadly leave Galway, which has been a delightful host for us, and is truly a magical little city.

Day 2

This morning began with breakfast in the hotel and then a drive towards the Connamurra National Park area, northwest of Galway. Our leisurely, winding drive through countryside dotted with peat bogs and sheep was beautiful. The sun and rain have cooperated nicely with us so far!

We stopped in a small town on the way for a tour through the Celtic Crystal factory (where several of our members did their part to help bolster the Irish economy.) We arrived at Kylemore Abbey just before noon - a little late, but no matter. Conor, our guide, informs us that the Irish live on Ish time: "1-ish", "2-ish"...

We made our way over to the small but lovely Gothic Church on the grounds and gave our first concert - a perfect warm-up concert for us: very low-key with our friends and a small group of visitors who stayed to listen. (By the time we finished, we had approximately 20-25 people who had come in and listened to at least part of our performance.)

A quick lunch and time to stroll the grounds followed the concert, and then we headed back to Galway via a different road that took past the only fjord in Ireland. Beautiful vistas greeted us throughout the day. A stop for a tour of the Connemurra Marble factory led to more support of the Irish economy. We are now back in Galway and heading of on our own for dinner for the night. With one performance under our belt, we are ready to polish the stone a bit more and make our remaining performances increasingly better and more moving.

A note about photos - the connection in the hotel here is rather slow, so uploading pictures takes a very long time. I will probably only upload one per post here for now, then upload more on the gracefirstevents.org page when we get home.

The Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir Performs at the Gothic Church at Kylemore Abbey on April 7 at Noon

On Wednesday, April 7th, at noon, the Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir under the direction of Stan deWitt will kick off their 2010 Ireland Performance Tour with a lunch time concert performed at the Gothic Church in Kylemore Abbey. The choir starts his excursion of Connemara National Park in the morning. It‘s highlight is the beautiful Kylemore Abbey where a home-made tea and scones await them prior to the choir‘s concert at the Gothic Church. Kylemore Abbey is a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The abbey was founded for Benedictine Nuns who fled Belgium in World War I. Originally called Kylemore Castle, it was built between 1863 and 1868 as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy politician from Manchester, England who was also MP for Galway County from 1871 to 1885. Architects were James Franklin Fuller and Ussher Roberts. After the death of his wife Margaret in 1875, Mitchell did not spend much time there. He and his wife are both buried in the small mausoleum near the church in the grounds of the abbey. A notable feature of the abbey is the neo-Gothic church, a miniature replica of Norwich Cathedral, made from local green Connemara marble. It was built between 1877 and 1881 and has a beautiful stained glass tracery window depicts the five graces; Fortitude, Faith, Charity, Hope and Chastity, and it is a center of reflection and prayer for many visitors.

Welcome to Ireland, Grace First!

How about that, Stan beat me to making a post. Hope you accept our warm FAILTE to Ireland anyhow. Warmest Sandra & Team

We made it!

It was a long slog through three airports and a long bus drive, but we were greeted by the sun breaking over Galway Bay and a beautiful day here in our first destination!

We all managed to make it to LAX, despite the local rain and Monday morning traffic. And we ran into surprise visitors, David, Tina & Chris Arechiga, who were also in the Delta terminal getting ready to board a flight to New Orleans! David was kind enough to take this first group photo of us as we prepared to board our own flight to Atlanta.

We landed in Dublin after two uneventful flights (and what better can you say of an airplane flight, really?) and met our tour guide, Conor, and driver, Eamon (both pictured below, as well as bus). Truth be told, we were all a bit zombie-ish by the time we got on the bus.

But the weather in Galway is gorgeous - almost 60 degrees and sunny. We were able to enjoy a quick tour through the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Galway, complete with a magnificent pipe organ (Sandy was drooling, I think) and a mosaic featuring three significant men in Ireland: Jesus, a hero of the Easter Uprising of 1916, and John F. Kennedy. Yup - that JFK:

That's all for today - we have free time until 7:30, and then a group welcome dinner here in the hotel. Most are napping in their rooms or trying to stay awake to defeat jet lag. But tomorrow morning we leave for a day trip to the Kylemore Abbey northwest of here and our first concert. So not too much rest!