Recital Day

Today we finished up our classes at the Scoil Eigse. We ended spectacularly with a giant recital on the Cathedral steps featuring all of the tutors and the students.

The kids kept telling me and Jay that they didn’t know the tunes for the recital. I didn’t really believe them. . .because at all of the music camps that I had ever been involved in (and that’s a LOT), the final performance features music the students had worked on during the week. But it turns out, the kids were right!

I guess for the instrumentalists, before the tutors teach a new tune, they ask the class if anyone already knows it. If someone does, they pick a different tune and ask again until they find a tune that no one has already learned so that they are teaching new material to everyone in the class.

That makes sense. . .but it also means that every class in the school is learning

different tunes. . .which is why no common tunes are taught that everyone can play at a final recital.

So for the final recital, they just pick tunes that are common and hope that most of the students already know how to play them. Seems a bit odd to me. . .but much of this whole experience is quite unusual for me so I guess it doesn’t surprise me anymore.

Surprisingly, the singing classes were actually the most organized about the recital performance! At the end of every day of classes, for about the last half hour, we combined all of the singing classes—adults and children—to work on 2 songs to present at the recital. The tutors chose a song about a man from Mullingar who had a dream that he was called off to war, had both of his legs blown off by a canonball, and was wishing he was back in Mullingar.

The second song was partly lilting and partly in Irish. I still don’t really know what it was about. The Irish singing teacher who taught us the song was a fantastic singer but wow, he moved fast and just sort of plowed through it when teaching. I sort of held on for dear life.

I have a confession to make. I’m tired. Like super Super tired. A few times in class throughout the week I have felt

like I was sleeping with my eyes open. But this morning in class. . .it happened. It was about a half hour before lunch and our teacher was singing a beautiful song that had heavy words about a woman who was missing her husband who was imprisoned. It was Long. Like 7 verses Long. Well around the 3rd verse I felt my eyelids start to droop. I fought it hard through the 4th verse. But by the 5th verse I convinced myself that if I closed my eyes the teacher would think that I was just immersed in the song and having a Moment. I also convinced myself that I could continue to hold my papers and didn’t need to set them on my lap.

And then it happened.

Around the 6th verse my papers slipped out of my hand and Woosh. . .went sliding all over the floor.

And my eyes popped open and saw that Michaela was looking at me with a little smile . .oh yeah, I didn’t convince her. She knew and luckily seemed amused. I sheepishly picked up my papers as quietly as I could while I’m sure all of my classmates were chuckling.

So on our lunch break, Gwen, Chapin, and I walked down to the Spieced Bean, our favorite little coffee shop. The owner, Aidan, now knows my order by heart—vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso. When I told him what happened in class we had a good laugh over me REALLY needing that double shot of espresso today.

He also asked me if I was singing in the song about Mullingar in the recital today. My first thought was “how in the world does the coffee guy know that we’re singing a song about Mullingar in the Scoil Eigse recital today?” But then he started to talk about how he loves the words of the song. . .but he thinks that the guy in the song wasn’t “dreaming” but he’d had a bit too much whiskey. I’m going to definitely miss the Spiced Bean where I can get a really great cup of coffee for about 3 euros as

opposed to the coffee shops back home where it’s over twice as much!

In something totally unrelated. . .why is making coffee at home not a thing in Ireland? I was expecting great Irish coffee to be able to be made at home. . .but all these airbnb’s have had is electric kettles and instant coffee! I miss my fully automatic Italian coffee machine back home something fierce! Which is probably why I’m falling asleep in class. . .

Anyway, the recital was after classes for the day and it was totally and completely bananas. They didn’t have enough chairs out, there were a bunch of Irish dignitaries there to receive awards, and people were standing around Everywhere to watch the spectacle.

We huddled around microphones and sang our songs when it came time. I made much less of a mess out of the Irish than I had anticipated so that was a win!

After the recital we managed to all find each other and meet up. The teens seemed pretty wiped out but I needed to go back to the Fleadh offices to try to get conflict sheets and admission bracelets for the competitions. Of course they were out of the bracelets already

The girls decided that despite being tired they wanted to try busking since there wasn’t anyone in front of the candy shop. They made around 30 euros! Jay played along on a few tunes and they had a really fun time.

We came home to dad’s homemade meatballs and spaghetti and had a delicious dinner. Jay skipped dinner and turned around to go back to the Fleadh to catch evening concerts.

Mom, Dad, Gwen, and I played pinochle and Chapin walked forever along the River Shannon taking photographs. He loves the Shannon and told me that even with all of the amazing things we have seen and done on this trip, he thinks the River Shannon might be his favorite! I’d be surprised but I have heard so many songs and poems about the River Shannon and know that people find it to be truly magical, so I’m not actually all that surprised it is speaking to my Godson in a special way.