Welcome and meet Tara Connaghan

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and this is season two. On season one, I talk to experts about their favorite holiday destination. On season two, I'll be doing things very differently. I'll be chatting to expats about where they currently live. Why they chose that destination, all those secret hidden gems that only locals know. You know, like favorite restaurants, best neighborhoods, things that tourists don't. Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and today I've got a really, really interesting guest. She is in a place that I love. I went there last year, so I'm really excited to hear more about Ireland and Donegal. Welcome, Tara. Let's have a little bit of information about who you are. Well, I just told everybody where you're from. Spoiled it. So yeah. Hi, where what are we talking about and who are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Oh my god, thank you so much for the lovely introduction. Hopefully I won't be as interesting as you make out. So I'm Tara Conahan. I live in Glentice in County Johnny Gall, which is a a small village town. Well, we call it a town, but you know, other people would probably call it a village. There's probably about 600 people that live here, and it's there's a lot of music in the area. There's a lot of writing and poetry in the area, so there's it's quite um a cultural area. It's kind of cool. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I wouldn't live anywhere else. I can I don't blame you because I tell you what, when I was there last year, I didn't realise how much history you

Leave room for serendipity

SPEAKER_01 1:31

have there, how friendly everybody is, what the pubs are like, like the little like had so much fun. But we're gonna we'll we'll talk more about that in a minute because you're gonna we're gonna go and talk about your music uh shortly. So that's gonna be very exciting.

unknown 1:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

So for those who uh what are the top things do you think visitors should see or do in Donegal?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I think when you're coming to Donegal, you need to be a little bit open to something might or might not happen. It's one of those places where serendipity is that's just how things happen here. You know, you could do the some some of the planned things, but actually this is the best place for serendipity. So and I always say when I'm recommending to people, just leave a space for that serendipity because that's where the magic happens. You know, it's we all could plan things, it's like, oh yeah, that's exactly what I thought it would be, and oh, it's nicer than I thought. But then when you just meet somebody on the side of a road or you happen to see somebody and you know, and you get lured in and you start conversations and like oh there's this happening today. Oh, why did you come along? And you jump in the back of a car with somebody. Now, in most places you would have gone, I am not jumping in the back of a car with somebody. But here it's just it's a very safe place. So, you know, you probably would you just go, Okay, where are we going? Oh, we're just going over the road, somebody's milking a cow or something, or or there's an Irish music session, you know, half an hour away or something.

Where is Donegal?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

And that's the yeah, that's what kind of happens here sometimes. And yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

And so do you think so for those who don't know where Donegal is, can you explain where it is in Ireland?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, Donegal is in the very northwest of Ireland, and it's uh slightly unique in that all its borders are almost with Northern Ireland. It was almost part of Northern Ireland, but I think because it was most of it, you know, there's it's is there's a whole political thing there, but it was kept in the Republic of Ireland. So we're in the Republic of Ireland, but we actually only touch the Republic of Ireland by about nine kilometres. So we're like just about on. So we're so we're neither kind of we're almost like neither in in neither place. Yeah. We're just it's a bit like I don't know if you've had anybody from Cork on, but Cork, people think that you know, Cork is the real Ireland and Cork's the the capital of every of the world actually, which is in the very south. But we're in the very we're the kind of the the Cork of the North Donegal or the North of Ireland.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So but even though we're not in Northern Ireland, which is a very complicated thing, but Yeah Yes, so yeah, because we actually drove up there, but I caught a bus back. And the weirdest thing was is that we had to drive through a little bit of Northern Ireland to get there, and so my internet kept going in and out, or my sim car kept going in and out because I I I had a sim for Ireland, you know, so not Northern Ireland, so it kept the GPS was like uh we're off track for a minute, but yeah, that it was quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, and I suppose for listeners who might not understand that Northern Ireland is still or the the term or the the place Northern Ireland is under British rule still. So that's why there's the whole going you're going into the UK as on part of the island, but because we're so close to it, we have and because we're only you know connected to the Republic of Ireland by nine kilometres, so unless you go one road which is on the coast and you come up by Sligo and Lee that little bit of Leytrim, there's like three kilometres of Leitrim there, unless you come up that road, you're you almost ha you have to go via Northern Ireland to get to Donegal, unless you come by the in by the sea.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Okay, yeah, that's awful.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

You get a boat. Yeah. And some people do actually. Some cruise ships do come into Kelly Beggs. There's a a harbour there, a port there, and it's and I do tour guiding for the cruise ships that come in there. So it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Interesting. And so what is the best way to get there?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Depends where you're coming from.

unknown 5:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

If you're Dublin Airport, then it's natural you'd have to

Getting there from Dublin

SPEAKER_00 5:15

go through Northern Ireland and enjoy it because Northern Ireland is stunningly beautiful and it doesn't have the same number of tourists as the rest of Ireland. So look if you go up the North Amtram coast and and go along the coastline and come into Dunygulf via the coastline, oh my god, it's stunning. Spectacular. Yeah. Spectacular. There might be more people around the the Giants Causeway, but once you kind of pass that, there's it's stunning. It is stunning.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I think people don't realise how much there is to do in that area as well, and how big it is. It's actually quite a substantial part of Ireland.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

So when do you think the best time to travel to Donegal would be?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Um, I think any time, because it's never got the same amount of tourists

Best time to visit

SPEAKER_00 5:58

that m like the likes of Kerry or Dublin have. But I suppose if you want to be a little bit more quieter, maybe the shoulder, slight shoulder seasons, because then things will be opening up. It is very heavily dependent on the tourism industry. So a lot of things would be closed in the winter months. They'll close kind of early October or kind of mid-October. So September's always a good time because a lot of people, you know, if there's any kids involved, people are back at school, so those tourists aren't there. So September's usually a good time. May is usually a good time as well. So April, May, things are starting to open up again, and then we go to sleep.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yeah. From October till April. I didn't realise that you actually see the Northern Lights from Donegal as well. I was surprised.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yes, yeah. The best Northern Lights I've seen. And I used to live in Finland. I have travelled to Sweden and Norway. I used to go to Norway every year for 20 years there. And the best northern lights I've seen is actually in Donegal.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Maybe because I'm here more often.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, you get to see

Northern Lights and moonbows

SPEAKER_01 6:58

it.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

We had last year, last May, the most spectacular. I have like the colours. And normally you'd have to kind of face north to see them. But but last May there was a festival on, and I remember being in my neighbour's house and and I was just coming out the door and I said, God, that looks a bit like northern lights. And I looked at the time because I kind of know the the kind of the the circumstances that need to be there for northern lights. Usually it kinda has to be kind of cold, usually around 12, 1230 at night. And I just remember looking up and going, But it's May, like it's probably a bit late for Northern Lights, and I thought, and it's not that cold. But I looked up and I thought, that's very northern lightish. So I said, I think there's northern lights. And so we all came out and it was like it just started, you know, they can be green, and normally we just see the green ones here because you'd have to be further up to see the red and orange. Oh my god, it it was so spectacular. There was pink and purple and orange and it was just a whole array of colours in front of us. And there was a music festival on in the little local pub, and I went in and it was like, There's northern lights outside, and everybody just emptied the pub. The pub was emptied, and we all went out and watched it. And I even came in because it was on for hours and hours. Like, right, I've seen enough.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Oh wow. Oh wow. That's on my bucket list. I really want to go see the Northern Lights.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Do you know what else? Do you know what else I've seen here? And it's outside I've got a picture of it right outside the the back door of the house. A moon bow.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I've seen three moon bows actually. It's especially it's a rainbow at night. I've never heard of that. I know, I know. Wow. I remember driving about ten or fifteen years ago, the first one that I saw. I remember driving down a kind of a mountain and I could see the coast in front of me. It was coming into Ardra, which is the next village. I thought, what is that? There's a kind of a you know, uh an arc in the in the on the sky, and I was like, what on air? That's very freaky, very weird. Um so I think I pulled in and I Googled what is is there such a thing as a a rainbow at night? And they're like, Yeah, it's a moon bowl. Wow. Oh wow. So you can see you can see like kind of an arc and you can see that it's like a lighter colour than the sky, and it usually happens when it's closer to a full moon, so there's quite a lot of brightness from this moon, but there's not too much cloud, but there's a little bit of rain. It's yeah, beautiful. It is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Wow. That's the one thing about that area is there's a lot of outdoor activities, right? Because it it's so lush and green and pretty, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Or maybe there's not a lot of activities you could also say because of the rain. Okay, yeah. That's so true. Well, that's why we do have lots of green, and that's why we have lots of rainbows and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

I do you know what? I really I spent a lot of time in Ireland last year because my son was playing rugby in Dublin. So I got to really explore the country. I d I just love Ireland. And the and the people in Donegal, honestly, and I'm not just saying that because you're on here, were so like so accommodating and so friendly and warm no matter where I went. But yeah, I just the one thing I do know that they are become absolutely addicted to is I now do the sauna and the r jumping in the ocean. And I started my very first time in Donegal, like on the coast, a little bit further up. So it was so beautiful in the sauna, and I just can't believe you guys swim all year round. That's one

Sea swimming and weather

SPEAKER_01 10:19

thing I will not be doing. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Well, not not all of us swim all year round. I have gone in and done one of the New Year's Day swim on New New Year's Day when it's really cold. For us, our temperature never gets, you know, we've got a a f between five and fifteen, always between five, you know, five degrees of ten, I always say. It's like there's a ten, ten degrees, and we're always five degrees either side of it. I mean, that's our kind of normal temperature. And then we'll have spikes of, you know, it'll go down to it has gone down to minus 17 degrees Celsius. Now that is really unusual. That's only happened once in the last 40 years or something. So and it has, you know, got up to 30 degrees, and that's probably only happened. It maybe happens like the odd time. Maybe maybe once every two years or something.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Was this what about this summer?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

This summer summer, yeah. It's kind of like a normal summer here. It's okay. Yeah, no, it's kind of 15 degrees, 12 or 30 degrees.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Okay. Well, it's a perfect place to go then because everyone else seems to be dying in the middle of the year.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah. We actually do have some climate refugees here, as in there leaving the likes of I've had a quite a few met a couple of Swiss people that have left the heat. They said the heat's too much, and so they yeah, that there's quite a few people said, right, can't can't deal with the heat, we're we're going to Ireland. So they moved to Ireland. It's a little I never thought we would people be coming here for the weather. But I suppose it is a cool place. And it's really it's really easy to jump on a flight if you want some sunshine. That's the handy thing. It's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Because you're in Europe, you're you're in amongst it all, so you're very lucky. And you have Ryanair that can go absolutely anywhere in Europe, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

You just have to play with the Ryanair uh luggage rules and then your friends, yeah. Which change frequently.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Do you know they stung me? They stung me because I didn't realise you had to check in online, not at the and then they they charged me was I think it was fifty, was it fifty?

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Forty or fifty euro, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

And I was like, I could have taken a bag for that amount of money. Yeah, exactly. Instead I had my backpack. Anyway, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah, you just have to follow, read the instructions really, really because they change all the time. So every Irish person knows this.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Be careful, yeah, exactly. So do you so I mean I you explain where it was. So do you think that you have to hire a car to to get there or to what once you're there, or do you think that it's a it's a place where you catch public transport or taxis?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Honestly, I do believe

Ryanair luggage warning

SPEAKER_00 12:54

it's difficult to use trip public transport here. You'll be limited to what you can do. You can certainly use it, but you will be limited. It will limit your the time that you have it because you know, here on my road, like I do live up the m side of a mountain, so the bus the bus tr passes here on a Friday at eleven o'clock in the morning. Today actually it should pass any minutes. And then you have to wait till next Friday. So there are certain places where you won't be able to go, and especially like a lot of the Irish music, you know, you will hear some Irish music in some of the bigger towns, but actually the like the that's normally kind of put on for the

Do you need a car?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

tourists, or it's microphoned, you know, it's there's uh it's amplified, or you know, it's there's lots of pub songs or things. So it's when you want to hear, if you want to hear the real traditional music, you need to go outside the town sometimes. Now some of them will have Irish music, but a lot of them will be pay played in a pub that's like you know, ten miles outside the town or you know, six kilometres outside the town or something. So you have to how do you get there unless you use public transport or you use a taxi and that so it's probably e if you do, if you can drive, you know it's it's a it's a safe place to drive, I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

I think it is. Yeah, I do. I think it is. It's a good place.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, it's easy to drive. The the roads are narrow here in Donegal. The roads a lot of the roads are quite narrow. We don't have a train, that's the other thing. So you are dependent on buses. Yeah, the train the train tracks were lifted in the nineteen what what year were they lifted? I knew this. The nineteen thirties?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

I think it's it's a while back. Yeah. But you do have like a little train that you novelty train that you can catch just around the whatever that is.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah, there's one beside me as well called the Fentown, it's in Fenton, which is just outside Glenty's. There's a a local nickname for it. We call it the FART, because you know in Dublin You know in Dublin you have the Dart, which is the Dublin Area Rapid Transport, so we call it the Fenton Area Rapid Transport. That's too funny. It's called the the Mokdoo, which means the black pig. So it's from a local legend story here. Yeah, about Finn McCool.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Okay. And is And is there do you think I know there's a big culture of music? How do you, as a tourist or someone visiting, how do you find out where to listen to the music or where do you go?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

That's where you need to talk to people. Okay. Okay. You will see some of it on Facebook. So look, Facebook is very still very much the the modus operandus for the people communicating here in Donegal anyway. And maybe that's because there's a slightly older population.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Ask people, I think. But then again, m a lot of Irish people won't even know where the best Irish music is. Okay. It's a tough one. How would you find out? Like if WhatsApp WhatsApp groups, that's probably where you find out, or you know, Facebook groups. And sometimes musicians don't want to be found. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. We're a very rare breed. We love we love playing with people and and communicating with people and having great crack with people. And crack as in C R A I C, I mean the fun, the Irish word for fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Um and then sometimes we just don't want to be found, we just want to play to ourselves and uh you know, so if somebody wants to listen, absolutely. Yeah, but it's funny. Sometimes we're just like, no, no, no, it's okay. We'll just hide in the corner here and play away.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Cause what is it called? I was in a a pub one

Finding Irish music sessions

SPEAKER_01 16:51

night and all of a sudden some musicians came and then people just joined in and played. What is that called? Is it a certain type of pub as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

No, it's just an Irish music session in the corner of a pub. So yeah, that's what I love to do. And even though I'm a professional musician, I've toured, but I don't tour a lot because I I don't really want to be away from home. This is yeah. I've done all my touring and I'm like, I just want to be here. I love it here. And I suppose I did live away from Donegal for about 20 years. So when you come home, you're just like, that's me, I'm done.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

I'm here with my dogs and my cat and my goats and my sheep and ducks and hens and geese and poly tunnel and more greenhouse and you know it's yeah, it's nice. It's lovely. Lovely. It's lovely. So I don't want to travel anywhere, but yeah. It's an Irish music session, and sometimes people can join in, but they actually kind of need to normally kind of understand what's going on before I I would recommend them join in.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't I think when when I I went to a few and they were amazing. I just don't understand how you can just they were just in tune with each other, you know. Like I have no musical bone in my body, so I don't even understand it. It just sounded great.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

See, we all learn sort of a common repertoire, and then there's kind of regional repertoires as well. So when Donny Go, we've our own regional repertoire because we're so cut off from everywhere else. We have a a very definite regional repertoire. So that wouldn't be played the same kind of melodies and tunes wouldn't be

How a trad session works

SPEAKER_00 18:17

played here as they'd be played elsewhere. Although we do play some common common repertoire as well, which you'll find elsewhere. Uh so when we go to maybe sit down in a session with other people, normally you know them. You kind of know, right, well, they're maybe so that maybe a Claire musician. So if I went to Clare, I lived in Clare for 10 years. So if I went to Clare, I would say I would be thinking, okay, what would be the repertoire here? What would be the tunes that they would know? Uh we all have access to recordings and CD CDs are still very big in Irish music, CDs or Spotify or wherever. So you have an access to that. Uh there's a a body of commercial music and there's also a body of archival music that maybe have been recorded, you know, in the twenties over in this in America and f from Irish musicians who emigrated. And so we all have that like we we revere those. There's especially the archival recordings, there's a lot of reverence there for those. So we would all kind of play those Michael Coleman tunes or who's a Sligo fiddle player. Or and so we'll all kind of know common tunes that are that are kind of in the common repertoire for all sessions or for a lot of sessions. So, you know, if you want to include somebody that you you know that doesn't know maybe the Donny Gall tunes, or you'll probably go to something that's an that's from a kind of a body of an archive body that's you know that's kind of fairly old and people would would understand and or would would play. So and then even though we all play ever so slightly different, so Irish music is like I don't know if you say that game when you were a child, it's called like Chinese Whispers or Telephone. Yeah. Do you have that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

So it's a bit like that. So we all learn a slightly different version. So we all because we all hear it ever so slightly different, it has changed every, you know, with every place it goes with every person that's played. So we're all playing something ever so slightly different together.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

And it somehow works.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah, because it's not that different, but it's you know, if you're and you'll once you're kind of an accomplished enough musician and and you're able to adapt to those around you as well, so you're like he played a really nice note. Oh my god, she played Oh my god, what was that she played? And so you're kind of going, I'll I'll kind of morph into like play that. Uh like there you'll pull out the notes that they play and they'll do the same for you, and they're like, Oh, what a sheep playing.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

That's so interesting. That's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

And what about innovating the whole time almost or improvising.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah. And what about Irish dancing? Can anybody go up and watch Irish dancing up there, do you think, in Donegal?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah, it's hard to find Irish dancing to watch. There are sometimes Irish dancing weekends where it'll be like a Cayley weekend where there's different types of Irish dancing.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So this is the thing.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Okay. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah, lots of different types of Irish dancing. So you have the very old style, which is like a solo dancer who dances it's called Shan Nose, and that those are the Irish words for old style. And so that's a solo dancer quite free and fluid, and they can they kind of move their arms very loosely. Their arms are very loose by their sides. It's always a solo, almost always a solo dance. They it's almost always the we call it the heavy dance, like a tap dance. So they'd be kind of battering on the floor, and it's it's lovely. It's it's but it's it's very loose and free. It's lovely. And there's no kind of legs kicking up in the air too much, it's not it's not very fancy, it's all about the rhythm and all about the the the like it's a very subtle, it's very, very subtle, it's beautiful. And then you move on to the the kind of more solo dancing that is the river dancing, where your hands are normally down by your side, and that's a competitive style dancing.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

And that's all about the the technique and the elegance of like the lighter dances that are that don't use the tap shoes, and they've kind of like the palm shoes, the like ballet shoes, but they're you know, you've seen the black ones with the crisscross of laces, yeah, that's the the lighter dances. So I mean that is so elegant and they glide across the street the stage, it's beautiful. And so that's a real competitive style. So you'll see that that's what you probably see if somebody jumps up in a the pub to dance. You probably see somebody doing the tap dancing, maybe of that, or the lighter dancing. Because most people, when they're most young girls in Ireland, from maybe we're talking fifty. Years ago, even sixty years ago, that's what they all the younger girls got to do the dancing, and all the boys got to do football, Irish football, Gaelic football. So there is that kind of now it's not always straight cut like that, but yeah, frequently it was mostly girls and and doing the dancing, mostly boys doing the football.

Irish dancing styles

SPEAKER_00 22:44

So you see that definitely in a pub if somebody jumps up and goes, you know, do a step. And that's the kind of dancing I did for my god, fourteen, fifteen years. And I I was I loved it, but I was really I was really shit at it. Pretty poor. Because my dancing teacher used to bring out all the the good dancers, you know, and show them off. She gotta go, look at this and and watch this. And she'd be like, Oh, so I would never get pulled out. Apart from once, I got pulled out once. I had good rhythm, so she pulled pulled me out by the scruff of the neck and she maybe play or maybe sorry, maybe dance for somebody. And I was like all chuffed, and she said, turned around to the guy and she said, Now, don't listen to this rhythm, fabulous rhythm, but never mind her feet. A way to knock you down. Well, you know, she she told me what I could do well, and you know uh showed me what I couldn't do very well, so that was fine, but it was hilarious. You get it, you develop a thick skin. But I did love it, oh my god. And then so then there's the other dancing, there's the Kaylee dancing, or the Kaylee dancing then will be more of the group dancing. So you have group dancing, and group dancing is kind of split in two as well. There is the more set dancing, and then there's the Kaylee dancing. This is very complicated. I'm just realizing how complicated this is. So the Kaylee dancing is like all like the light, the lighter shoes they're doing, they're not making sounds, they're just kind of they're called hop one, two, three. So you're doing hop one, two, three when you're dancing, and you're kind of you could be dancing with a two two people, you could be dancing with four people, six people, eight people, sometimes there could be more as well, sixteen people, twelve, sixteen people. So like in a big circle or and then you're facing each other or something, you know, so there's different dances like that. But then there's the similar to that is the set dancing, which is more they're kind of battering, they're they're hitting the ground as they're moving. It would be kind of similar, but it's it's slightly yeah, but slightly different.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Oh wow. Wow. But it's in a like I I've learned a lot about um dancing. I didn't even know I needed to know. And I'm not even I'm not even a dancer. I'm sorry to all the dancers that are going like, what is she talking about? No, that that's good. That's really good. And so you touched on Gaelic football. So is it vegan, Donnie Gore?

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Yes. It's it's yeah, especially my hometown as well, Glenty's at the moment. For the last maybe ten years, we've won probably about maybe seven or eight of the champ the local championships. So yeah, well, it's it's it's like gospel. It's real it's a religion. And then there's also the the hurling, which is the fastest sport in the world, with a like a it's like a almost like a baseball bat, but it's a flattened baseball bat and it has a curve at the end, and they they play it with a small leather ball. We don't play that here in Donegal, it's mostly well, we do a little bit, but not very much. It would be like Limerick, Galway, Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny, so kind of southern countries or counties play that more. We're we tend to be the more football counties in the the northern half of the country. Although they do play football as well in the in the rest of the country, but we tend to stick to the that's what we do. We love it.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

You love your your My My kids played when we lived in Hong Kong. So I kind of got interested in kind of because it's such a different sport. It's a little bit like our Aussie rules, but a little bit very different. You know, different places.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Yeah, because a lot of a lot of guys got move from if they move to Australia they sometimes play Aussie rules.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, we have a lot of Irish in Australia actually. Which I just went aw I don't know, it's it's great. I just went and watched the wallabies play Ireland in Sydney. It was when I say just, it was back in July.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

We had I mean there I there was just as many green jerseys as there was yellow in the crowd because there's so many Irish in in Sydney. There's a lot which I love.

unknown 26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

My cousin is over there. He is what? He's probably late twenties or something. And so he was home for a couple of weeks there recently. We met him for for lunch and he said, Come on. He said he's he's only gonna stay another year. That's what he promises. And I know that promise, like that's always broken. So, you know, because they just love it. There's a great lifestyle there.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

It's more of a life rather than you know, there's more work work to live rather than live to work. To work attitude there. And and we have a lot of that here as well, but I think it's more you've got more the sunshine. You know, people just like it's just a life is easier when you can it's like, oh, I can actually take a bicycle out and ride. And Yeah. I have a bicycle, but last night I went out and I it was like it's a lovely day all day, and I said, Right, I'll take the dogs out for a a bike run. And they they run along the same because we're in the middle of nowhere, so they just run off lead beside me. And we got out the gate, it started to kind of drizzle. We got to the next gate, which is about 300 metres, and it we got drenched. And we just came back home. So they didn't even get it. We didn't yeah. So today I might do it.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Do you know it's funny? My son loved Ireland, like he loved playing in Ireland. He said it was the best experience ever. The

Gaelic football and hurling

SPEAKER_01 27:42

only problem was the weather. He really struggled because it was cold. I went and watched a game once and it was so cold. This was in February, I think, yeah. And it was so cold. And I went into the bar well just just just before half time, and I said to the bar the barman, can I get a cup of coffee? And I said, put a bit of whiskey in it, because I'm so cold out there. Because of course you can, of course. I was like, I felt embarrassed. I I just I don't even drink whiskey, but it was so cold.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah. That would warm your cockles, as they say.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah, it is cold. And it's not that it's very, very like the temperature's very low, it's that we have them humidity as well. Yeah, yeah. And the wind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

And if you're in you're in Dublin, if you're in the west coast, it's even windier.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Well, I think for h that that wasn't this, that was in a place that I'm gonna I'm gonna crawl the I know it's spelled A-T-H-Y, and I was saying it incorrectly, and I don't know how to say it. That's it. I wasn't saying that, and I got kind of hammered on Instagram because I was re I was saying it completely wrong. And then I realized when I got to the game and everyone was calling out, I was like, okay, I'd said it completely wrong. How were you pronouncing it?

unknown 28:58

Athy Athy?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Athy or something like that? Yeah. Because it was At A T H Y. So I just I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

I just said Athy and it's frequently in the southern half of the country they pronounced the syllable on but the emphasis on the second part of the syllable or the second syllable, so a thigh rather than athi would be the first the the um pronunciation on the on the first syllable or the you know the emphasis. Yeah, so if you're in the southern half like car. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

That's like there's a place near you. Oh my gosh, I'm not even gonna pretend I know how to say it was a completely different way of saying it because I think it was in it was Irish, and it was where you went and it was like this round crater thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Green and Alec.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

How do you say it?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Green on Aylach.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

How do you how do you how do you like spell it? Because it's doesn't sound like that when you when you spell it, it sounds completely different.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Yeah, see a lot of places are in Irish, so the Irish the Irish doesn't it's not pronounced as it looks for an English speaking person. Yes. Especially if you have any H's in there, if there's any H's, H's will sound totally different. They'll make the the vowel the consonant beforehand sound totally different. So if if I have an H, that's a V sound. If I have B H it's a V sound. Okay. Or kind of an Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah. Yeah. Actually that makes sense, because Shabon Shabon, yeah. Yeah, it sounds like a V, right? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Yeah, yeah. So that's that's just that's I that's the Irish language, which is a total, you know, different language to it's and there's only about half a million people speak Irish in Ireland. I mean what's the t what's the population? Five five point five million at the moment. So and it's a national disgrace that we all and I include myself in this, and I actually live in the Geltuct area, and the Gailtuct area is where Irish is spoken. And I am an English speaker in the Gaeltuct area and an Irish speaking place, because I grew up six miles away where it was an English-speaking place.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Yeah, we all go to school for what, fourteen years, probably around fourteen years.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

And we all study Irish for fourteen years. And not, you know, only half a million of us can speak it that as an absolute disgrace. I mean it is, it is. And I need to do something about it for myself.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

I know if it makes you feel any better, I don't speak a zap of Italian and I have a dual passport. No way. Yeah, yeah, I can understand it, but I just do not speak it. So and I haven't speak English well. Yeah, so you're up you're up you're definitely doing better than I am. So how many days would you suggest someone comes to Donegal for? Do you think you could do it in three? Or do I need a

Irish place names and language

SPEAKER_01 31:47

seven days? Do I need Oh, I think just stay here for as a lot for the whole trip.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Yeah. And Donegal, never mind anywhere else. You know, as you say, the people are really, really friendly. So maybe if you come here first, you'll probably get spoiled, and then when you go to the rest of Ireland, you might go, but it wasn't as good as Donegal. Maybe I'm being biased here. But you know, there's there is a kind of bit of that where they're like, you know, I didn't get treated with as much special attention in elsewhere because they're just, you know, they've maybe got more tourists, so they're like, Yeah, you're just another tourist. Whereas in Donegal, people tend to only ca because it's out of the way, because they have to go through Northern Ireland, because uh there's no not a lot of public transport, then they tend to there tends to be a lot less tourists. So when people come, they're just treated like a local and they're just treated, you know, or or even like a big deal because they're here.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

But we sh we we can't tell anybody that because then there'll be more shh share too many people will come.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

But it how long do you think because there is a lot to do, right? And it's a big county.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

It is quite a big county, so there's the north of Donegal, which I know relatively little about. And I know there's amazing musicians up there, amazing fiddle players, that's who I know up there.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

And the green analyuk that you mentioned there, the round kind of fort-like place, that's there. And yeah, that's there's no cost to get into that. That's just a beautiful place to go. I love myself, and actually I've heard loads of people recently say, I love just stopping off there on the way past it. You have to now climb like a drive up a hill, and so you couldn't get to in a bus because it's such a narrow road up to it. So if you had your own transport, try and get up there, and it's just this beautiful place where you can see all like you can nearly see the whole of Ireland. Well, you can't really, but you can see a huge distance and it's spectacular. But like there's no coffee vans or anything like that, or or anything up there. There's nothing up there, just yourself and the car park. But it's pretty, it was really, really pretty. Yeah. So there is that northern ego that could take a few days. Then there's the wet I mean, yeah, you could you could it depends what you're interested in. So, you know, if you're interested in in just being just being and and being open to chatting to locals and things, I mean you could stay for months.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

You could actually just come on holiday and never leave.

unknown 34:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

And I just loved how every everywhere I went, people wanted to chat. You know what I mean? Like, where are you from? What are you doing? You know, and there's everywhere I went was like we went to museums, we did we went to see llamas, you can go surfing. I didn't realise you could go surfing up there.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Oh yeah, we've got the best surf in Ireland.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Yeah, I didn't I didn't realise that. I guess because I guess because of the weather, people don't assume you just don't surf, right? You just I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Well we've got the best we've got these huge waves coming in from the Atlantic. So we yeah, we have the best surf probably in Ireland. And there was the apart from the one week that the world champion surfing championships happened in Ireland in Donegal and there was the calmest seas ever.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Yeah. So if you're into surfing, go to Bundorn, which is kind of on the south part of Donegal. Bondorn has the best waves there. Supposedly.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Because you've

How many days in Donegal?

SPEAKER_01 35:03

also got castles. I remember going seeing a couple of castles as well. Yeah. And that was that's quite interesting. And what I liked about it is that it's set up as it once was. Where did where was that? Was that in Donegal Town?

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Donegall Town, yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

And it's funny castle there.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

There is Donegal Castle, and it's funny. I find a lot of the other castles in Ireland are maybe kind of English castles, or you know, they were built by the English when when they came and took over for a couple of hundred years. But the one some of the ones in Donegal are more because we were the last people to have be ruled by our own Gaelic chieftains until the 1600s. And we were the last place that the English kind of conquered at the flight of the Earls, and that was the early 1600s. And so most of the castles here are from that time. So from the Gaelic landlords, or the Gael not landlords, but the Gaelic the Gaelic lords, or the Gaelic chieftains, whereas then the other ones were built kind of maybe the 17th century, which was um more the English landlords then built castles and that makes sense. 18th, 17th, 18th centuries.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Because they were different. I found them very different to when I went down and looked at all the other castles down south. Do you have any Do you think it's a safe place for solo travellers? Because I'm a solo traveller, I'd always ask.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Yes. Absolutely. I mean I've never felt in any way unsafe in Donegal, anywhere in Donegal. I think most of the places on the west coast of Ireland I'd never feel unsafe. Maybe Dublin because it's a capital city.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

But you just and you just be kind of a bit more mindful.

Grianan of Aileach, surfing and castles

SPEAKER_00 36:36

But I'm a kind of a solo traveller most of the time as well. So yeah, I'm looking I'm always I'm always I'm always have my wits about me. I'm always kind of aware of my surroundings and but Donegal especially is you know I think it's I remember being in Finland in the in I moved to Finland in ninety nine, ninety eight, ninety nine as a student and I loved it. And it reminded me of old Ireland like Ireland seven in the seventies when it was, you know, you could leave your door opened and and so Donegal's a bit like that. You could leave your door open, but you wouldn't, but you could.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

You could if you wanted to. Yeah, yeah. I mean we we don't really lock the vehicles here very often at night.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Yeah. It's nice. That's nice. It's n it's like when we were like back in Australia back in the seventies, eighties. Exactly. You wouldn't do it now though.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Yeah, Donegal's kind of about that kind of way, though, but we don't like people to take advantage of that either.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a different free ride.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

So if a friend came to visit and they had three days, where would you take them on their three day visit?

SPEAKER_00 37:42

I sometimes bring people out to Aronmore Island.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

I mean there'sn't there's not an awful lot to do out there, but it's just I love it. It's although I am afraid of the height I am terrified of heights, which I discovered on Ironmoor Ironmore Island because it has lots of cliffs as well. But there are spectacular views out there. You're right on, you know, out on the ocean. It's only about a 20-minute ferry ride. You're out in the ocean, next stop, probably Greenland or North America.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Oh well.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

So there's no houses on the north side of the island because it's the weather can be quite severe. The houses are all on the south side where they're facing in towards the mainland. And there's a lighthouse there. There is a lovely little covered area by the beach for like concerts and things. It's a very small island, it's like 20 kilometres or something of driving around. So you could go in and out and do it on the one day, definitely. So you could get a ferry over, you know, 10 o'clock in the morning and come back at 3 o'clock, or maybe even, you know, you could have sometimes there's restaurants open and sometimes there's, you know, not during the the winter. There's no guards on the island, so no police on the island. It's it just has this. I just remember we were we brought my parents went there as when brought us there on a as a as a tour one day when we were younger, when I was about, I don't know, six or seven, and I still have the memories from it. Oh, that's so sweet. So it was lovely. Yeah, that's one of my favourites. Where else? Don't he call his experience as well sorry, excuse me, experience in quite a well, the same as the rest of Ireland, actually. There's a whiskey uh a real kind of whiskey regeneration in the Irish whiskey market because it did have experience a real decimation back at the maybe the 1920s, 30s, with the when we when we got divorced from our neighbours. Okay. Yeah. And the that's the politest way I can say it. And they had an embargo on all our Irish products.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

So Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yeah, and at that stage Irish whiskey was like uh they held about 80% of the the global whiskey market.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Which was yeah, I mean w Scottish whiskey was not to be thought of or, you know, nobody wanted it. And then the prohibition as well happened in the States around the 1920s, 30s. So we had about a hundred legal stills on the island of Ireland, and then it it it got decimated. Within about fifty years it was down to two two legal yeah, two distilleries. So at the moment there's in the last ten, fifteen years there's kind of more opening up and it's about fifty now. So it's a real resurgence of the Irish market. And I work in a distillery as well, actually.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

So Okay. So that's where I'm heading after this. Okay. What's the name of the distillery?

SPEAKER_00 40:19

It's called Schleevleague or Ardra Distillery, which is the near the next village over Ardarah, or it's

Solo travel safety

SPEAKER_00 40:24

pr it's pronounced Ardra, but we it's spelt Ardara. So if you're looking for it, that's where the distillery is. And it it's it started its life at Schleevleag, which is a beautiful cliffs as well. So you could go there and also try and find a nice session, maybe, of Irish music. And no, so I would definitely recommend you listen to it because some people have come with instruments thinking, Oh, I've I've I've never really heard Irish music, but I hear it's you know it it's everybody's welcome. You're like, mmm, everybody's welcome. Who who has maybe learned to play a little bit of Irish music. Okay. Okay, good to know. So yeah, because some people do think it's it's this participatory thing, and there are sessions where it is, but it's it's kind of like an on an invite at that stage. It's you know, if you get to chat, just be friendly, the normal, like this. And I do think Donegal's great for that, where you're chatting away to people and then you're you know, so the musicians, you're they're just other people in the bar that you're chatting to, and and then somebody might say, Do you sing or do you play or whatever? And then like then there's your in. But before that, I would kinda you know hold back a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

And where would be the best place to go to listen, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 41:37

What you know, is there an area in Donegal, do you think? So they're mostly away from the bigger towns. So the areas like here, Glenty's, a little bit of Nardra as well. And Ardra would be much more participatory. In Glenty's, you have to kind of come outside the village to the little pub called the Glen Tavern, which is a great place to spray play. And yeah, it's lovely. It's it's it's a tip it's a real lovely mix of like

3-day itinerary: Arranmore Island

SPEAKER_00 42:02

really good quality musicians and people are welcome. So there's kind of when it's a small, small area like that, it's much more easy to kind of have that welcome. Whereas if it's in a larger town, you know, their musicians are paid to do a gig and it's a it's almost like a it's a job. So it's not it's you know, it's not as welcoming, but in the little areas like that. So there's maybe Carrick, Thielen, Glen Column Kill, all those kind of areas there, all in the Gaeltuck, uh the Irish speaking areas. And the Thielen is where the the Slievleague cliffs are. So that's you get the cliffs and the rusty mackerel is a pub there, which is great. And Evelyn's in Carrick, there is Hugh Hughie Biggs, which is Hughie is the name, is like Hugh in Irish. Hewdy Big is small small. So Hughie Biggs in Gidore, that's in Derybeg or Bunbeg. There'd be music in there. Where else would there be music? But there's music in North Dunegall as well, Malin, Mauville, Boncrana, yeah. So the good bit of music, but they're kind of yeah, all over the county, but it's spread out. But yeah, so you do definitely need a car if you're going on a music trip. Okay. Definitely. If if people are into castles, Dunegall Castle, Glenvey Castle. Again, Glenvee is a more more modern castle. It was built later, but definitely Donegal Castle. And it's quite small, it's not huge, but it's you know, you get to see the older style. I do actually food. If people are into food, Donegal Town is is my food heaven.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Ah, okay. Do you have somewhere in particular?

SPEAKER_00 43:31

There is a place called La Belladonna, which is a obviously Italian kind of slight Italian version uh uh uh vibe in it, but they do the most amazing steaks.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Oh my god, beautiful medallions of beef. Wow. And

Irish whiskey revival

SPEAKER_00 43:46

then across the road from that is the castle bar, beautiful seafood. There's the blueberry cafe beside that, which is closed at in the evenings but it's open all day, and they do lovely food. Um there's simple Simons on the Diamond as well.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

I've been there, but but I went there for like do we have scones and coffee or something?

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's the Abbey Hotel, they have their market house restaurant, they have beautiful food. And then there's Thai food in the Central Hotel. That I lived in Dunegall Town for a couple of years when I moved home. I moved in with my mother, and then you know, two two adult females in the kitchen don't always go together. So I moved out. After a couple of years, it was like, no, I can't do it. So I moved to Dunegall Town, and you know I You can put on the the Donegal town stone. Yeah. Because I just ate out all the time. It was so cool. There's so many restaurants and so many cafes. And it's not a huge town. No. There's only probably what, 2,000 people living there, maybe less. But it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

That is so nice. I did eat we had we did eat there. And we also uh we had the ice cream that in that ice cream shop because they won awards, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Yeah. Oh, I'm gonna have to tell you a funny story about the ice cream shop. There's a a local a person who moved here. He's moved from Malta actually and he's living next door to us. And so my other half was helping him with how to cut turf. So we cut turf, you know, that we cut the peat, the bog, to heat our houses. So we then, you know, heat the house with this with this turf. So it's kind of like a sweet, almost like a wood smell, but sweeter. Yeah. Real smoky smell. So he was showing him how to cut turf and and he caught came out, he's gonna kill me for saying this came and brought brought us some ice cream. And so I put it straight in the freezer. He was just saying thank you. And so my other half went off with him. The two went off together and put some ice cream in the freezer. He said, You gonna eat that? I said, Oh, I actually don't like that ice cream. I've had it before, it's very sweet. So I put it in the freezer and that I think the next day or maybe that, you know, when they were out at the bog, I said, Oh well, I'll try it anyway, just in case, you know. I it was sweet, but I'll try it. And then I was like, actually this is really good. It was something like raspberry cheesecake or something flavour. That's the one they won awards, yeah. Yeah, and I and so I was like, oh so I ate half the tub and I put it back in the freezer, and I thought, well sure, he'll know I ate half the tub. So then I went off by a music that night, and the next morning he came jumped up in the bed and he's like, Did you you didn't eat half the tub of ice cream? And he's like, He gave us half a tub of ice cream because I had said I didn't like it, so he was like, Shwell, sure it wasn't me. So he must have given us a half a tub. He was like, I wonder is that the is that the Is that the Maltese way? Yeah, is that the Maltese way? Is that the tradition that you give half eating? Oh my god, I nearly fell out of the bed laughing.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

He probably thought, oh, how stingy is that? He's just giving me half

Best trad music pubs

SPEAKER_01 46:45

a half of my ice cream. That is still that was so funny.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Yeah, so it is good. That ice cream is good. What's it called?

SPEAKER_01 46:55

God Oh my god, what is that ice cream called? I'll put it in the show notes so that people know because it's definitely because also near there I went to like a place where they make hats and we make Hannah hats? Yes. Yeah. And I bought Hannah hats.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Do you know where the Hannah hats, what who uses Hannah hats? Do you know the hat?

SPEAKER_01 47:12

I do, but can you tell people?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

The film, or not the film, but Netflix series, Peaky Blinders. So Kellyan Murphy and yeah, they all that's all Peaky uh Hannah hats. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

Yeah. Fascinating. Because also Patrick Dempsey wears them as well. He's a big fan of that particular shop. So I had to get my husband a hat from there.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Cool. And uh you mean Dunny Gall Town has lots of tweed as well, and it's really, really high quality tweed. There's McGee tweed, there's Triona. Beautiful. I love Donegal Tweed, oh my god. And I think Donegal Tweed is now trying to get the UNESCO, you know, protection for Donegald tweed so that other you know, other tweets because other tweets are trying to copy it and say, Oh, it's Donegal Tweed when it's not and made in Donegal where it's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Because the the hat that I got was is is Donegal T uh tweed. Because I was I wanted to get it because I was there and yeah, and I'm a bit of a fan of Patrick Dempsey, so I was like who's yeah, I was like, oh yeah, I'll get one. But yeah, I just loved my time there.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Yeah, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have a holiday home in Donegal.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 48:18

That's so random.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Okay, I can see why though it's such a sweet little place.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

I just saw an interview with Matthew Broderick on RTE, which is the national the national TV station here, and he was uh well, maybe he actually was on the radio, but it was on a a online clip, and he said that he his parents had a holiday home there, so he was brought from the age of seven. So it's his parents'

Where to eat in Donegal Town

SPEAKER_00 48:39

holiday home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Oh wow. Yes, very cool. Do you know? I was actually interviewed on your local radio when I was away. Yeah, I know, it's so random. Yeah, I know. As you do. Oh, that's how friendly you all are, right? We're like, wait, there's a Australian. Yeah, we'll just we'll just get this stra random Aussie. And you know who was interviewed before me? Your Prime Minister, or she was going she was going up for election. And yeah, so she was before me and she went over and I was like, Who is this lady? And the guy goes to me, yeah, she's potentially gonna be our prime minister. I was like, Oh, okay, then she can take her time.

SPEAKER_00 49:16

So this this was around this time last year.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Yes. It was. Yeah. It was, it was September last year.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Because I was interviewed around the same time as well. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 49:24

That is that's we could have been on the same show. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

That is very funny. It wasn't you weren't over at the T-Bex, no? Yes. Yeah. Oh, and I was there too. Were you? That's so funny. It's so rare. Oh, because I was interviewed just after her as well. Or just yeah. Me too. Yeah, when they were down in in the little they had the Highland Radio down. Yeah. That was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

That is so funny. So we were literally in the same room and didn't know it.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Do you remember there was a fiddle player there? Yes. That played music? That was me. And we were dancing, there was somebody dancing around.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Oh yes, yeah. That's so funny. Because I love Mary. Like, I get on her house on fire. I met her in Quebec, and her and her husband, I was like, we we actually ended up staying out drinking. We were the last people standing. And I was like, I wasn't coming to to Donegal. She convinced me. I was like, okay, I'm coming to Donny Gall.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

Yeah. That's so funny. You know, you know, the keynote speaker that was there, Michaela Melosi. She's has a a travel travel bare feet with she's a TV programme and the PBS. And she dances. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's one of my very good friends. So I went to it because she was there.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Oh, that's so funny. Oh, okay. Because when I was being interviewed, because she was interviewed before me, or a couple of people before me. And

The half-tub ice cream story

SPEAKER_01 50:49

she started because you two started dancing as well around Gosh, that's so funny. Gosh. I was like literally just then, just after you guys.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

No way, that is such a small word.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

So yeah, sorry to all the listeners. So we were just reminiscing about yeah. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Oh my god. You probably got to the distillery where I work. I think you did you won the tour on the bus tours as part of that? Yeah. So you went to the Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

I was gonna say that I did some whiskey tasting.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Yes. Yeah. And I was there. And there's another one as well, Crawley. And then I mean Clanya Clanid and Enya are all from Donegal as well. There's a a distillery beside their home pub as well. So Yes.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

I went to that. I went to that.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Yes, Leo's Tavern, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Yes. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah, that's why I know about Donegal. That's the reason I was I didn't drop that.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

It was only when you said Highland Radio and and the the the future possible president. Yes. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

President, not Prime Minister. That's all right. Yeah. Apologies. Catherine Connolly.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

Yeah. And she did become president, yes.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Yeah, that's that's so funny. But yeah. Anyway, that's great. Do you do you have any other tips or hacks or anything that you would like to tell the listeners?

SPEAKER_00 52:05

How you go into a restaurant, how you start a new job, how you how you enter any space that exists before you walk into it. So this is kind of the music etiquette or the Irish music session etiquette. It's called In Tune with Tradition Perspectives on Etiquette and Irish Traditional Music Sessions. Or if you just Google or Yeah, or type into any of your podcast, whatever platforms, Session Etiquette or Irish Music Sessions, it'll probably come up. The website is called sessionetiquette.com. And yeah, I have a tour actually in September, October come up, so which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

Okay, where are you touring?

SPEAKER_00 52:41

Mostly Dunny Gall and Sligo, and it's very much based on the etiquette, like how to it's for this one is for musicians who want to join into sessions, and so we get to we get kind of some private sessions, we get to I get to kind of guide people into sessions, they get to practice. Do they should they go in all this kind of like does because it's just about reading what's going on in in that session at any one time because it's always different every single session, even the same session half an hour later or two hours later could be different. So it's all about reading, reading the room or reading, reading the circumstance. So yeah, and then I will have another one in May, I think. I haven't got the dates sorted yet, but early kind of spring, spring, early summer for more appreciation as well. If

Hanna Hats and Donegal tweed

SPEAKER_00 53:26

people just want to come and see sessions and and tour around. So it'll be mostly Donegal and Sligo that I tour. So that I'm not too far away from my animals.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Of course, of course. I'll put all your details in the show notes so that people can click on and make it easier for them to find you. But Tara, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a wonderful chat. It's so weird that we actually were so close but so far away.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

We were actually standing beside each other, that is hilarious. But this that's the kind of serendipity that happens.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

And this could we were meant to meet. We somehow. A year later, that is brilliant. So thank you. Yes, please do. Yeah, it's so funny. Such a small world. So thank you. Thanks for so much for coming on. And thank you all for listening to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. And until next week, safe travels. Bye. Thank you for joining me on the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. If you liked this episode and you found it valuable, then why don't you go ahead and like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode moving forward. I've got some amazing guests and some fantastic destinations coming up. But if this is the episode and this is the destination that you really want to go to, then I suggest you head over to truly expatravel.com where you'll find travel guides and deep dive into this sort of destination. If that's not what you want and you can't find an episode that is a destination you want to travel to, then head over and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok because I'm pretty sure you'll find something there. In the meantime, safe travels and I'll see you next week.