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Our morning excursion was to the extraordinary
Cliffs of Moher, (
view map) a natural step-like exposure of escarpments overlooking the sea. In bright sunshine, the grass was emerald green, and the skies were sapphire blue, and the sea was a slosh of turquoise waves. Along with hundreds of other tourists, I carefully climbed up the worn path to the top prominence. The views at each step were much the same, but each one was fresh in the changing light. The similarities to cliffs along the coast of Newfoundland were striking – same turf, same friable edge, same crashing Atlantic Ocean.
Back in the historic part of Limerick, we had a bit of time for lunch. A fair number of us went to
Dolan’s, a pub where some of our group had gone last night for music. Our numbers seemed to overwhelm them on a Sunday, because the service was slow and not particularly accurate. Fortunately, my ecstatically delicious mussels in Red Thai curry sauce came in good time for me to enjoy it. I am going to investigate Red Thai curry sauce at home.
With no minutes to spare, I changed into my Westwinds black shirt and black pants. Onto the bus
for the quick drive across the Shannon River to St Mary’s Cathedral for a rehearsal. Because I had seen it yesterday, the barrel-vaulted nave was less intimidating than I feared. Nicole chivied the choir into our four-row formation. We sang
">Locus Iste. Amongst the soaring stained-glass windows, I felt shivers in my calves with the beautiful sound amongst the resonant stone arches.
Our half-hour was over too quickly, so we moved to the breezy outdoors and continued rehearsing on the front lawn, where a few curious tourists seemed to enjoy the fragments of our concert. For some reason, the band extended their rehearsal to a whole hour. That meant upon returning to the hotel, we went straight into the dining room. Unfortunately, the restaurant staff was unable or unwilling to change their service style or practices to accommodate our haste. We rushed back onto the bus to return to the Cathedral.
With the band set up from rehearsal, the choir sat in our voice sections around the edges of the nave. During the organizers’ introductions, Westwinds presented an envelope of cash we had gathered for the family of a critically ill girl, who was the focus of this fundraising
concert. (Our bus driver seemed quite taken by our putting together the donation.)
Such a big venue suited the band’s big sound, blending all the horns and letting the rhythm be more apparent. Following the band’s performance, a group from the neighbouring County Clare sang and played the
. Their light folk songs, reels, and one ballad were a good contrast to our massive sounds.
The audience of about a hundred people seemed intrigued by our chant-style Iroquois song,
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The greens of Ireland
So many wonderful shades of green. Music in every venue and wonderful people.