Day 4: Dublin
Welcome
Yesterday was a huge day for us spent on road, sea, and stage.
I started my day with a punnet of blueberries leftover from the rider. We had a big drive to get to the ferry and I needed proper fuel, not just the usual bacon and sausage circus.
Our route took us Southeast initially, down the M74 until we reached England and the M6 which took us South for a couple of hours. As we passed Manchester we headed West on the M56 and then the A55 for the beautiful coastal drive across Northern Wales.
We arrived at Holyhead Island right on schedule and completed our customs inspections before heading to the ferry. After that it was an hour wait on the dock before we drove up the loading ramp and into the hold of MV Ulysses, a 210m Roll-on/Roll-off car ferry that has been faithfully serving on the Irish Sea crossing for 22 years. For the real blog enthusiasts here is a video of the most exciting three minutes of our day.
Late in the afternoon we approached Dublin Port after a calm and uneventful crossing. We disembarked and rushed to customs to get our paperwork stamped before driving the short distance to the venue which sits on the River Liffey, right in the centre of Dublin.
The approach into Dublin Port.
It was a extremely tight setup and soundcheck due to the ferry running late and the already tight timeline on a gig day on which we traveled through four countries. Spike did some amazing work though and had the sound reinforcement set up in record time and we were able to squeeze in a very quick soundcheck before the gig got underway. It was a delightful evening at the Grand Social - the same venue we played when we were last in Ireland in January 2019. Dublin made us feel very welcome and we greatly enjoyed performing in this intimate room.
I’ll leave you with a moving image of a gardener trimming the rose bushes in the carpark of Tebay Services in Northern England. It is this seeing this level of care and attention to detail that gives us the inspiration and energy to get through a busy tour day like this.
