Day 9: Dublin
Welcome
Yesterday we left the United Kingdom and played a show in Dublin, Ireland.
No one was very happy about the 6.30am lobby call but this the price you pay for an affordable flight. I knew that my next chance to get food wouldn’t be until lunchtime, so I made sure I was up early enough to visit the hotel breakfast buffet, which at Holiday Inn Glasgow Airport, an IHG Hotel sensibly began with a cold breakfast at 5am and a hot spread from 6am. I took a large dinner plate from the pile and served up a pair of hashbrowns, a pair of tomatoes, a handful of mushrooms, a sausage, a fried egg on buttered toast, and a pile of haggis.
We were grateful for the proximity of this hotel to the airport terminal because it meant that we only had to walk our equipment a couple of hundred metres across the street and we were at the check-in counter. Our Mercedes Benz Civilised Sprinter was already on its way back to London being driven by a gentleman from the rental company, so now it was just us, trying to get our thirteen large pieces of baggage onto the airplane.
It took a good hour to get everything checked in. Thankfully our Aer Lingus check-in operator was skilful and patiently coaxed the computer through this complicated process.
Liz was pulled aside at security because the packet of biscuits in her bag looked funny on the x-ray screen.
Our flight was delayed for thirty minutes because it took so long for the baggage handlers to get our oversized equipment onto the tiny plane. At 9.10am our ATR-72 climbed out of Glasgow Airport and headed southwest towards the Irish sea. The skies were dark and overcast and it seemed like we really were whisking the good weather away with us.
Jon on his way to board our ATR-72.
A pale blue sky dotted with puffy clouds accompanied our landing at Dublin Airport. We disembarked from our aircraft straight onto a bus which drove at an impressive speed around the edge of the terminal to deliver us to a suitable entrance point. After collecting our baggage, we headed outside to wait for the shuttle that would take us to the Sixt Car Rental home base. It was a bit embarrassing when the shuttle finally arrived, and we had to try and fit all our equipment inside. There were a couple of other families also waiting to head to the same destination and they had to squash in around our giant cases which were packed onto some of the seats and down the aisle. The man sitting in front of me said in a thick German accent “what kind of vehicle are you renting, a lorry?”. Fair call, we thought.
Our vehicle turned out to be a Volkswagen Transporter, a modestly sized van in a Royal Blue finish, with plenty of scratches and dings across the bodywork. It was just large enough to fit all our gear with three sitting across the front seat. The thing that really set this particular vehicle apart from the several other rentals we have had this year was the CD left inside the stereo that of its own accord quietly began playing as we left the rental lot and headed to find a lunch spot. Indeedin You Needn’t Bother is Brenda Castles’ 2019 release, a recording of traditional Irish Music performed on concertina and guitar, which is available on CD and digital download.
We had a couple of hours to kill before we could check into our hotel so we drove ten minutes to the town of Swords to find a bite to eat. Tristan found us a great pub and we enjoyed a superb lunch and the opportunity to sample the local Guinness, which as we all know tastes much better on these shores. After lunch we went back to the hotel to check in and then with Brenda Castles’ concertina just making itself heard over the sounds of our Volkswagen Transporter’s 2.0L direct injection turbodiesel engine we began to make our way to the venue, in the Portobello neighbourhood of central Dublin.
Our venue: Bar Whelan’s.
We sound checked early in the evening and then went for a walk to enjoy the weather that had everyone out on the streets and in the parks. Walking through St Stephens Green we saw that all the people had moved across the eastern side of the park to follow the last remaining rays of light as the sun began to drop behind the nearby buildings.
Gabe visits the statue of Phil Lynott, of Thin Lizzy.
Over the past year I have been attempting to read James Joyce’s Ulysses, and in doing so cement his role as my literary hero. Here I am posing next to his statue. Currently I only have about forty pages left to read.
Ready to go on!
The view from the balcony with a fish for scale.
This was probably the smallest room we have played in a while, but it was a brilliant space. The stage was nice and tight, and we could hear everything clearly, and really see the whites of the eyes of everyone standing in the first couple of rows. We got to chat to some lovely folks at the end of the gig while we packed down; something that just doesn’t happen at the bigger venues that have higher levels of production and security. The promoter came to congratulate us at the end of the night, bringing with him several gestures of appreciation that we enjoyed thanks to their creamy texture, and bitter malty notes.
Here is Tristan’s latest offering, the highlights from our day in Dublin.