I need one of these outfits

At the Dublin Irish Festival, each year there is a historical re-enactment group that camps and presents aspects of like from Brian Boru's Ireland - about the year 1000 A.D. (That's right - A.D., not B.C.E.)

The family went to the DIF after the Feis and one of the things we did was to explore Brian Boru's Ireland.

The girls were very interested in the crafts, musical instruments, the work being done. We participated in a demonstration of some of the fighting arts and listened to a story told by the local herbalist.

One of the reenactors portrayed a medieval abbot - the spiritual and physical leader of the monastery they were recreating for us 21st century folks.

He was wearing a long, white flowing robe, a Cross around his neck, and a staff in his hand. Yes, he has a long gray beard. After he pronounced a blessing on me and my family, I later struck up a conversation with the abbot and learned a few things and saw some things that were a little out of the ordinary.

Turns out the abbot's day job is pretty close to his day job. He's a bishop in the Oriental Orthodox church (not Greek, not Eastern) and is based in a monastery near the inner city of Columbus. He related some harrowing tales of living where he does and his ministry to the people that live in the area. He said that he has been giving last rites to as many people outside the hospital as in it due to gang violence.

But while we were talking just off the main drag at the Dublin Irish Festival, we had a couple of interruptions.

First one was a couple of young fellows came up to us and started talking. He related a dream to the abbot that by all accounts was satanic in nature. It consisted of a circle, with inner rings alternating white and black. The circle beckoned this young fellow into it. He asked the abbot "what would you say if you had a dream like this...?"

The abbot then asked him - "Well, did you go in to the circle?"

At that point, the young fellow gave us both a blank look and walked away.

The whole time I was praying for the situation and for this troubled young man.

The abbot said that it had been a while since he last had an encounter like that, but often times satanists would make contact like that in the process of seeking freedom from satanism.

I don't think that's the experience that the DIF wants the usual festival-goer to have, but I was OK with it.

Then not a couple minutes later 2 young ladies came up and asked the Abbot, "Are you Jesus?"

He said, "No, but I work for Him."

One of the young ladies then asked for the time, which I supplied because I was wearing a watch.

5 minutes, 2 opportunities to share his faith.

I need one of those outfits.

Competition Results

The Columbus Feis has come and gone and the Conners family fared pretty well in our competitions.

The Feis runs concurrently with the Dublin Irish Festival, and it's held at Dublin Coffman High School.

The girls each were entered in 2 dances - a Jig and a Reel, First Feis.

Samantha won a gold medal in the Jig and a Bronze in the Reel.

Erin won a gold medal in the Jig and the Reel.

The actual dancing was on separate stages and I wasn't able to watch Samantha's competition, but I did for Erin. She was a little nervous but her teacher, Katie Regan, spent a couple minutes with her just before the Jig. Katie had a lot of students dancing that day and for her to do that was great.

For my competition I played a different air than I intended to - changed it earlier in the week. I played "Dark Woman of the Glen", and the jig was the same "Trip to Athlone".

I nailed the air, and did OK on the jig.

The girls got their results back reasonably quickly - about 20 minutes or so. My music competition results were available at 5pm, so we went to the Dublin Irish Festival for the afternoon.

The girls liked seeing the Celtic Canines (they like animals a lot), did some crafts. Our youngest, Emma, made a red sash with shamrocks and sparkly glue and sequins that she was very proud of. Sashes are a very Irish thing to wear - denoting a title or position.

We took in a fair bit of the Kells set (they are very good musicians, great folks) and then the girls wanted to see the historical recreation display - "Brian Boru's Ireland". They really enjoyed it.

5pm came quickly, and when the results came in, I won the Miscellaneous Irish Musical Instruments competition - a gold medal.

Total medal count for the Conners family: 4 Gold, 1 Bronze.

A Strange Sighting

One of the guys I work with lives not too far away from me, about a mile south.

Jim jogs in the morning through my neighborhood, and on occasion he'll notice something out of the ordinary and mention it.

And what he saw was definitely out of the ordinary: he said he saw a fox, not once but twice.

I asked if he was sure and he said "Definitely, it had the big bushy tail and his two ears right on top. Too big for a cat, didn't move like a cat."

This explains why I've been seeing fewer bunny rabbits in my area. We had a litter of rabbits born in our back yard this past spring and the rabbit holes started appearing. Foxes definitely like rabbits.

I've seen possums in the 'hood before, but not the fox.

Better that the fox takes care of the rabbits before I have to.

Competition

Coming up this week is the Dublin Irish Festival and the Columbus Feis.

Lori and I have 3 girls, and the 2 older ones take Irish Step Dancing lessons. They love to dance and they take lessons with some other girls in the neighborhood. Our family room on occasion becomes an Irish dance studio when the girls get out their music CD and practice. It's one of the reasons we got the house we did - plenty of room for this sort of thing. (We've had as many as 3 girls dancing simultaneously...)

They will be competing in their first Feis this coming Saturday of course we'll be there to cheer them on.

Part of my heritage is Irish, and playing the uilleann pipes is one way how I express and live out who I am.

So, I've entered the Columbus Feis this year in the "Miscellaneous Irish Musical Instrument" category.

I won the Gold Medal in the category in 2001.

Competition consists of playing one Air and one Jig or Reel, so a total of two tunes.

The Airs are slower tunes that usually have lyrics that go with them, and they are derived from Irish "Sean Nos" singing. Sean Nos is a capella singing, usually in Gaelic. The songs will tell the story of love, tragedy, turmoil or skullduggery. It's the piper's job to imitate the singer.

It does help to know Gaelic and hear the song actually sung but that's not always easy to do.

The next best thing is to hear another piper play it, and learn it that way.

Airs provide a way for the musician to express themselves in the Irish musical tradition, and that's because the Air is in itself a tune that is more free-form than the Jigs and Reels.

Jigs and Reels are, well, Jigs and Reels.

Jigs are in 6/8 or 12/8 time, and the reels are in 4/4. There are a couple other types of tunes in the tradition - hornpipes, polkas, slip jigs, slides.

With the dance tunes there is opportunity for variation, but it's all within the format of the tune. The melody is set, but it's in the ornamentation of the melody where the expression and variation comes in to play. Lots of different types of ornaments in Irish Trad.

That's in contrast to much of our modern music where there is free-form expression throughout the song (you may not be aware of it).

So, right.

Looks like the tunes I'll be playing will be the slow air "Ned of the Hill" and the dance tune will be a jig, "The Trip to Athlone".

I learned the air from a recording of Seamus Ennis, a master piper of this past century. The jig is from a recording by Neil Mulligan, one of my favorite pipers.

First post

Thanks for checking out my blog.

What's with the name, you ask?

Glad you asked.

One of my interests is playing music, and one of the instruments I play is the Uilleann pipes. It's not an easy instrument to learn, takes a lot of practice and that practice takes place in my basement, also known as...

The Piper's Cove.

Other important stuff happens there - I listen to the radio, fix stuff that's broken at the nearby workbench.

And I get to think about things. I'll post some of them here.