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We’re a small bit behind schedule with photos and summaries of our recent Gabs but we’re getting back on track. Photos by the wonderful Max Bell are now available on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.944495297914060&type=3

Our November Gab Mixtape in Callanan’s to a capacity crowd brought us many treasures. We had bees, boars and the beds of Diarmuid and Gráinne. We had polkas, poetry, parking fines, polo and poitín. We had rocks that wouldn’t shift, lakes that wouldn’t drain and favours that could never be repaid. We felt a sense of an ending, the beginning of new love lifting a stone and learned the importance of heeding a mother’s intuition. 

Julie Crowley was the first storyteller of the night bringing us on a young man’s reluctant journey to several dances(he’d have rathered be at home farming), through fledgling relationships cut short by his father’s shaming of him but ultimately ending in his father’s words of wisdom. A simple love story with a message for us all in choosing a partner in life who can share the load. 

Up next was Conor O Buachalla. Condensing any stories from the Tóraíocht into a version that listeners can connect with is never easy but Conor didn’t shy away from it, bringing us the highs and lows of Diarmuid and Gráinne and their ill fated love affair. As with all tales involving the Fianna we had beds, boars and of course plenty brutality. 

Up next was Vince Kiely who brought us to the far East with a story was set in India. Our hero was a poitín maker called Patsy O’Halloran who  took the Queen’s Shilling and went with the British army to India. Patsy dealt in favors, he didn’t deal in money. By the time his service in India was up, every single person in India owed him a favour. Patsy’s efforts in trying to keep a polo game from being cancelled were successful and another few favours were owed to him in return! 

Then we had Fanny and John up next. Gone for a Day, a self composed song of John’s inspired by his wife’s absence and an albatross was followed by a few tunes led by Fanny who played a series of Mazorkas on the fiddle, accompanied by John.

First we had a Mazorka from the French tradition, Mazorka Des croissants followed by The Origins of the world. Fanny’s own husband composed the next number, The ballad of Judith Hoad, inspired by a documentary about a woman living off the land in Donegal. We then heard ‘Christmas in Spiddal’ and ‘Twelve to the bar’ by Liam O’Flanagan. 

After the break, Fear an tí Liam O’Shaughnessy created an air of mystery when introducing the next teller – himself! The boy who wanted to live forever  met different characters on his quest and eventually ended up in inside a Mountain, living the life of his dreams until he got sick of it and he wanted to go home. The sound effects of the duck on a lead slurping the lake were evocative and hilarious. A traditional tale to start us back after the break. 

Newcomer to the Gab Anna O’Sullivan was next up. She told a story that started with a harmless bit of dodgy parking on Patrick St and culminated in the guards arriving at the door of her parent’s house. A romp of a story charting the highs and lows of an adult parent child relationship. The moral was clear – pay your parking fines and remember that a mother’s intuition is never wrong. 

Then to finish off the night, we had Diarmuid O Drisceoil with a beautiful story from Cape Clear. The images of men digging the grave of their friend and neighbour, the straight lines cut by their shovels, and the ‘perfect angle of repose’ of the dug out earth were brought poetically to life in Diarmuid’s telling.  A moving story to bring our evening of stories to a close before Fanny and John played us out.

John Neville had us all buzzing along with his old ‘Honey Bee’, a beautiful love song between a bee and a flower before Fanny introduced a set of polkas. The first two composed by Séamus Creagh – Connie in the Pool, and the Gortnatubrid Polka. We then heard the P&O polka by Christy Leahy. Our Final polka of the night was ‘The Frenzy Polka by Cormac Begley. A gorgeous array of music to send us out into the November night. 

Thanks a million to Rob and Eileen in Callanan’s for letting us take over, Paul Walsh on the door, Deirdre O’Mahony for putting it all together, all the tellers and musicians for the entertainment and most of all the listeners who turned up and played their part in making the magic.

Vince “all the way from Tipperary” Kiely launched straight into the October Mixtape in Callanan’s as Fear an Tí bang on time and kept us going at a great gallop all night. The first teller, Mary Walsh, took us to within a few miles of her native place and back to the penal times in the 1700s, the parish of Matehy and the notorious Captain Fox and his yeomen. 

The next teller, Paul O’Sullivan, didn’t just give us an ode to Jim Mountjoy who founded the Jazz festival, he gave us an ode to Cork and its characters. Jim died earlier this year and Paul’s story paid tribute to the visionary man and his legacy for the city. 

Julie Crowley’s folk tale introduced us to a poor man with a wife, 7 children and terrible misfortune one year when his crops failed. In search of work, he walked and he walked and he walked for 13 miles until he met a man who offered to solve his problems with gold and silver but at what cost?

Cathal Ó’Loingsigh took us to the break with some fine playing on the banjo – the Groves (hornpipe), An siocán sneachta by Joe Carey, John Kimmel’s jig and Seán sa Cheo.

Deirdre O’Mahony told us a story about Davy, a fierce nice fella but not great at anything and bad luck followed him wherever he went. Until one eventful day when he set a fish free, got fired and met a strange man who offered to turn his luck around. 

Coppers and Brass on the tin whistle was how Meath man, Stevie O’Brien, introduced us to Patsy Harrington, a travelling piper from Mohill, Co. Leitrim. Patsy was a small little lad, who had the finest pipes and the finest horse in the country thanks to the widow O’Hara. The widow’s wake turned into quite the night for Patsy! 

The final story of the night came from Vince Kiely himself. He took us back 1901 and all the way to the high north of Canada, Dawson town, south of the Klondike River and the little wooden church and the feast of St. Eustace, the patron saint of trappers and hunters. Then he brought us even further north and the unlikely pairing the Killer Kelly and the Reverend Russell taught us that despite all our coping skills in adversity ‘It’s the small things that get you’. 

Cathal brought the night to a close with a slow air on the box, An Buachaill Caol Dubh followed by three polkas.

Thanks a million to Max Bell for these excellent photos that captured the night so well, great to have him back. Thanks to Rob Crowley and Eileen Crowley for making us feel so at home in Callanan’s. Thanks to Paul for manning the door. Thanks to Deirdre for putting it all together. Thanks to the tellers and musicians and most of all thanks to the listeners for making the night extra special.