Padraig O'Keeffe Festival, Castleisland

Castleisland
What a great weekend. Castleisland hosts the Padraig O'Keeffe Memorial Festival every Halloween - it's been going about 14 years. We arrived and checked in to the Hotel. We went straight for dinner as we were starving. Unfortunately I accidently said whisky when I meant to say Water afterwards and that was the end of me for the night - apparently I had a brilliant night though nobody could find the key I was singing in - oh dear. That was it - for the rest of the weekend I was on the dry!

Saturday afternoon found us up the road in a lovely pub at the singing sessions - singers included Dessie O'Halloran, Tim Dennehy, myself and a lot of wonderful local singers - lovely afternoon. It was great to see a group of Dublin lads down for a birthday celebration - they were so well behaved and respectful that they declined singing anything!! Thanks Eoin and crew.

Saturday night we went to Jackie Daly's session along with Seamus Creagh, Connie O'Connell, Eileen de Paor, Paul de Grae, Aaron from Virgingia and Jay Kuchinsky from Edmonton - what a really lovely session, though it was a pity it was in the middle of a noisy hotel room - but it got quieter later, quiet enough for songs. On seeing the queue to get into the resident's lounge we decided to head for the hills at about 2.30 - but of course the clocks went back so we actually got an 'early' night.

Sunday afterrnoon and a brilliant session in Brennans. Connie O'Connell and Gerry Harrington led it with Eileen de Paor of course and a few other great players. The scheduled players - Derek Hickey etc. held off until the first session came to a natural change - which was a really good way of doing things. The Concert on Sunday was excellent - with every act doing just 2 or 3 numbers, and it flowed very well. Some of my favourites were Paudie O'Conner with his wife Aoife O'Keeffe, Joe and Anne Burke, Jackie Daly, Seamus Creagh, Peadar O'Loughlin, Dessie O'Halloran, Sean Abeyta, Con Fada O'Driscoill to mention a few! Later Sunday there was craic to be had all arcross town, with about 16 sessions in each of the pubs.

On Monday we decided we'd better hit the road, but dropped into Brennans for a quick coffee before heading over to Clare on the ferry. But we were caught when in walked Connie O'Connell again - he's just such a wonderful player, with great tunes and real respect for the music. 5 hours later we eventually hit the road!

Thanks to Cormac and the committee for such a brilliant weekend.