Another Mad Dash

MICHAEL: Hello and welcome to Ireland with Michael.

I'm Michael Londra, and in this show I get to tell you everything I love about my home country the best way I know how, through music.

This week, we're getting lost on a mad dash across the country, giving you a taste of Irish culture from all over the Emerald Isle.

Along the way, we'll be meeting some of my friends in their own parts of the world and hearing how where they grew up influences their music.

So join me on this wild ride.

♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael is made possible by... ♪ ANNOUNCER: Whether traveling to Ireland for the first time, or just longing to return, there's plenty more information available at Ireland.com.

♪ ANNOUNCER: CIE Tours, sharing the magic of Ireland for 90 years.

♪ ANNOUNCER: Aer Lingus has been bringing people home since 1936.

If you are thinking about Ireland, Aer Lingus is ready when you are to take you home.

♪ (birds calling) MICHAEL: For today's whirlwind trip around the Emerald Isle, we'll start right at home.

For me that is, in County Wexford, at a place that's dedicated to the history of all Ireland and all the people who have called themselves Irish.

This is the Irish National Heritage Park just outside my hometown of Wexford.

On over 40 acres of woodland right beside the Slaney Estuary, they've recreated here scenes and structures from over 9,000 years of Irish history.

It's a glimpse into the ways that various peoples have lived on this island and helped shape it into what it is today.

In many ways, Ireland was a testing ground for the brutal colonization of Africa and the New World.

We share a great deal with those other nations that gained their independence in the 20th century, including the burden of reconstructing and revitalizing a culture that was nearly lost.

But that culture isn't fixed and it never has been.

This crannog, for example, is an artificial island, a lake dwelling that would've been accessible only by boat.

It's a marvelous Gaelic invention, but follow this path down to the water and you'll find a Viking village like those built by Norman invaders who themselves became every bit as Irish as the Gaels themselves.

You see ours is a history of others coming to our shores and when they realized they didn't want to leave, becoming a part of us.

Our land, our stories, made all the richer and more complex by each new arrival.

So Derek, it's great to be back here in Wexford.

I'd love you to tell me what your job here is at the Irish National Heritage Park.

DEREK: I'm the head tour guide here at the park.

MICHAEL: And what do you think is the message of the park?

DEREK: The story we try to get across here in the park is about different peoples arriving in Ireland throughout its history, and then when we get into later parts, it's about people- Irish people going around Europe and even further afield.

And then more people coming back to Ireland like the Vikings and the Anglo-Normans.

But then of course, there's always people coming and immigrating and immigrating to Ireland over its history.

MICHAEL: After all, (birds calling) what would Ireland be without the Celts who immigrated here from mainland Europe?

And what would it be today without Diwali in Dublin or the Little Brazil of Gort?

♪ The answer is less.

Less interesting, less complex, and less ourselves.

Sasha, how are you?

SASHA: Good, how are you?

MICHAEL: I had the deep pleasure of meeting the poet laureate of Wexford, Sasha Terfous, whose spoken word poetry often explores themes of identity and helps bring attention to the margins and the too oft overlooked.

♪ SASHA: We exist between the borders of pride and hope, dancing by the edges of back home and out yonder.

We have worked this land with brass, wood, and steel.

We have crafted nations from honor, bone, and sweat.

We are the chosen.

♪ (birds chirping) These streets we call home have warped their paths around legend, shaped by the granddads and the isle lads, warmed by the nannies and the mas.

Our bellies are jaundiced with history, rife with ballads.

These lands of ours are rich with stories sealed in the songs.

We are the descendants of Fólkvangr and Valhalla, presidents, musicians, distillers, and commanders.

We are farmers, artists, sailors, and news agents.

The backbone, the forgotten people, left to thrive in secret, our folk are preserved by monument and park.

♪ Our tales do not end at coastline and port.

We extend beyond beach and bay.

It is where we are going to.

It is where we are coming from.

It is the white, the black, the brown, the beige, the emerald fields and silver towns, the skies of blue and crests of purple, ♪ the borders of pride and hope, the burgundy of back home, the blue and pink of out yonder, with brass, wood and steel, from honor, bone and sweat.

The forgotten people, the backbone, the chosen, for we are the Golden Ones.

(birds calling) MICHAEL: The care and craft given to the words of Sasha Terfous left me staggered and in awe of what a proper poet can do.

♪ Though it may be my stomach talking, I am reminded that there are some other Wexfordians carefully crafting raw ingredients of a more digestible nature into sumptuous creations of their own.

And though the cocoa bean may not exactly be native to Ireland, the good people of Bean and Goose have certainly adopted it and done some amazing things in their little chocolaterie.

Karen and Natalie, I have waited to come to Bean and Goose for the longest time.

I've admired you and your journey with chocolate here in the heart of Wexford.

Tell me, how did it all start?

NATALIE: Well, so we started Bean and Goose about six years ago now?

KAREN: Yep, that's it.

NATALIE: And it really, we- we started it because when we were growing up, we had great memories of chocolate.

So for us, chocolate was always a really exciting thing.

Every Saturday we'd run to the sweet shop with our pocket money to buy our chocolate for the week.

(Michael laughs) And I remember our mum used to gift chocolate a lot.

So chocolate was used for every occasion, whether it was your birthday or Christmas or Easter, there was chocolate always gifted.

And then I think we grew up and we looked around and we realized that chocolate had kind of lost some of that joyfulness and that specialness that we remembered from it.

So it was- it was very much just a matter of, can we bring that back?

KAREN: Yeah.

NATALIE: Is there something we can do to bring that joy back into chocolate again?

MICHAEL: What is uniquely Irish about this chocolate?

NATALIE: The flavors are very Irish.

So we have Connemara's Seaweed, we have Irish Atlantic sea salt, we have local honey... KAREN: Yep NATALIE: We have all these lovely Irish flavors in- in the products that we make.

♪ MICHAEL: This is the part I've been waiting for, the opening of the box and the first actual taste of Bean and Goose.

So let's do it.

Oh my word.

It's a work of art.

I don't want to bash it up, (Karen and Natalie chuckle) but I'm going to do it.

(wooden hammer pounds) Okay.

Look at all of those ingredients.

What is it?

Orange?

KAREN: It's a very classic flavor, so we've caramelized nuts, pistachio, almonds and hazelnuts, and we've got blueberries on and orange peel.

So a real celebration of changing of seasons.

MICHAEL: It's like a taste of Ireland.

It's delicious.

KAREN: Thank you.

♪ MICHAEL: I'm glad I didn't leave Bean and Goose empty handed as I'd be happy for the road snacks on the way from the southeastern corner of Ireland clear across to the southwestern peninsula of County Kerry, where we come to another workshop producing handcrafted works of art of an unparalleled quality.

Though these will last you a little while longer than a bar of chocolate, or so you'd hope.

I'm here at Louis Mulcahy Pottery at the edge of the Dingle Peninsula and I'm really excited because I've been a fan of this man's work for many years, but I've just found out something even more special about where he comes from.

Let's go and find out.

You may think you know pottery, but browsing the shelves here is less like a trip to Ikea and more like a visit to the Met.

Louis Mulcahy... LOUIS: Mm-hmm MICHAEL: I am very delighted to finally meet you because I have pieces of your work all over my house.

Can you tell me where you're from originally?

LOUIS: I am from the same town as yourself.

I'm from Wexford.

MICHAEL: And I am amazed by that because I had no idea and I can- I can safely say that I'm going to spread the news far and wide because I'm a big fan of your work.

Tell me, what made you decide 40 years ago to move to the Dingle Peninsula?

LOUIS: Well, you couldn't but be inspired by the landscape here and by the evenings when the sun... MICHAEL: Ah.

LOUIS: Was going down here, the colors and that, but also the sea itself.

And when we started, one of the earlier ones was the blue, the various tones of blue and the greens.

But the reds and the yellows and that, they are from the sunsets.

And the fuchsia and the various wildflowers and that.

They all- Yeah, it's not a very conscious thing, it just comes in.

MICHAEL: It's just natural.

LOUIS: Yeah, yeah.

MICHAEL: Thanks so much for having us here.

LOUIS: Pleasure, great pleasure.

♪ MICHAEL: All right, you've caught me out.

It's been something of a celebration of Wexford today.

I can't help it if all the most talented people come from where I'm from.

Is it really all that surprising?

No bias, just facts.

Still not convinced?

Well, let's put them to rest as I couldn't be more proud to introduce you to a beloved daughter of Wexford for whom talent doesn't cover the half of it.

Hearing impaired though she may be, Úna Walsh is a wee but growing legend on the harp.

A prodigy of a player.

At just 14, you wouldn't guess her age by her playing.

♪ ♪ Úna, can you remember the first time that we met?

ÚNA: No.

(laughs) MICHAEL: Well, I do.

I understand why you don't because you were only a couple of days old and you were about that size.

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Everyone out there should know that your mommy is a good friend of mine.

And when I met you, I had no idea that you would end up growing up to be a famous harpist, famous all over Ireland.

Did you know?

ÚNA: No.

(chuckles) MICHAEL: I guess, though, you have been playing for a long time.

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: You grew up outside of Wexford town in a tiny little village.

How do you, where do you learn traditional music?

ÚNA: Well, I learn from my harp teacher, Shelly O'Grady, and my mom runs a music school at Taghmon.

♪ ♪ ♪ MICHAEL: What's really interesting for me is that you learned to play the harp, however you've got a hearing deficit.

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: So how, when you were growing up, did you accommodate for that?

Because it seems to me that the harp, it doesn't have specific notes, there's very full free- free notes.

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: How do you hone in on those notes?

ÚNA: Well, I use like vibrations so I can like feel it through the floor and it comes back up, and that's how I... MICHAEL: And is it more difficult when you're playing with a lot of other people?

ÚNA: Yeah, 'cause then I can't like hear myself as much, but yeah.

MICHAEL: Do you think this is something that you want to do professionally when you grow up?

ÚNA: Um, no.

(chuckles) MICHAEL: Oh, that's very definite.

You have some other plans, do you?

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Okay.

Can I ask what they are or is it... ÚNA: I want to be a visiting teacher for the deaf.

So like, I travel around Ireland and, like, help like deaf children and, like, help them.

MICHAEL: Incredible.

And maybe you can teach more people to play the harp, right?

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Now, you're not going to stop playing, I hope?

ÚNA: No.

(chuckles) MICHAEL: Okay, 'cause I look forward to when I'm a really old man and you're probably teaching kids of your own.

ÚNA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: I look forward to it.

♪ ♪ ♪ Finding ourselves between counties Wexford and Kerry, let's split the difference in finding a place to lay our heads down for the night.

Smack dab between them is Tipperary, and there, in Cashel, is a Palladian manor that's been converted into one of the most luxe hotels in Europe, the Cashel Palace.

♪ (fire crackling) Okay, yes, all that about splitting the difference was a bit of a stretch.

And can you forgive me?

I mean, look at the place.

Having a travel show has to have some perks after all, and a night here is more than a few.

But first, it's what's in the backyard that I'd like to talk about.

This is Cashel, City of Kings.

And we're here at its namesake, the Rock of Cashel.

It's a totally overwhelming stronghold which served as the seat of the kings of Munster.

The impressive structure sits atop a limestone outcrop rising from the golden vale all around.

Local legend tells that St. Patrick drove the devil from a mountain 20 miles north of here, sending in the process the massive rock flying until it landed right here.

The site was built up and added to over hundreds of years that the kings of Munster ruled from it.

And today, it contains some of the most exquisite examples of Celtic art and architecture anywhere in Europe.

My work done at the Rock of Cashel, it's back to the hotel to enjoy some well- earned luxury.

ADRIAAN: Very welcome to Cashel Palace Hotel.

MICHAEL: The general manager coming out to meet me wasn't half bad either.

So Adriaan, standing here on the lawns looking at this stately mansion, and I can't imagine how long it took to put this magnificent structure together.

What was- what was the journey like?

ADRIAAN: It was quite long.

And obviously, we were hoping to open mid-2020.

But a small little virus got in the way and delayed things for us.

(chuckles) MICHAEL: You know what I love about the place as we drove up, I- I was struck that this hotel is the heart of the town.

It's right in the dead center of the town.

ADRIAAN: Well, we like to say Cashel Palace is in the heart of Cashel, Cashel is in the heart of Tipperary, and Tipperary is in the heart of Ireland.

So we want to welcome everyone with our hearts to Cashel.

And this is where we think you can come and stay for three or four days.

And you can go to visit Kilkenny, Cork, Limerick within an hour's easy reach.

We're only two hours from Dublin.

It's a very central place to base yourself.

And instead of hopping from hotel to hotel, come and stay here for three or four nights and have a base.

You don't have to unpack every day.

You can visit the people who provide the food, some superb food producers under the umbrella of the Tipperary Food Producers.

So what you eat here is all very much sourced within the county of Tipperary.

So you- we've got something for everyone here.

♪ MICHAEL: But look, you're trying to see all of Ireland in a day.

Odds are you're interested in our drink.

A proud tradition of brewing and distilling has produced world famous whiskeys and, of course, the iconic Guinness stout.

But how did it all begin?

To answer that, we're off to Cork, to a place that specializes in the original imbibement.

So Kate, the only thing that I know about mead is that the base ingredient is honey.

But maybe you can tell me a little bit more about what goes into them.

KATE: Sure, yeah.

So honey, if it's left to its own devices, it will basically last forever.

But once it gets diluted, it, for example, if a beehive gets rain in it, that honey will start to ferment once it's got diluted.

So it's the oldest alcohol in the world.

It goes back to at least six and a half thousand BC.

But it's honey and water and then yeast.

The oldest ones would've been the yeast that's naturally around us in the air.

MICHAEL: So it ferments like wine would.

KATE: Very similar to wine.

That's right, yeah.

MICHAEL: Well, maybe we could taste some of these.

KATE: Yeah, sure, so- Some of these tanks are full of mead.

I think this one here is the traditional mead.

And that's made just honey, water, and yeast.

That's all it is.

And so we shall have to try a little bit.

MICHAEL: Oh, sure.

I'd have to.

KATE: We have to.

You can see how much we've worn the tank back.

Just take a little bit.

MICHAEL: I will.

Just a little tot of it.

KATE: So there you go.

MICHAEL: Cheers.

Well, let's try it.

♪ Oh, it's not near as sweet as I thought it would be.

KATE: There you go.

MICHAEL: It's- it's actually gorgeous.

KATE: Lovely.

Yeah, yeah.

♪ MICHAEL: You know, one of the things I miss most about my home country is popping into the pub at the end of the night and hearing fantastic live music.

And remember those perks about being on a travel show I mentioned earlier?

Well, one of them is that even if I'm spending the night in County Tipperary, the magic of television lets me pop up to Donegal way in the north and be back in bed before nine.

Although it's not quite so easy to hop around Ireland the old-fashioned way, I'd be willing to go any distance to listen to The Henry Girls.

♪ Donegal sisters with a mix of instruments from Ireland and around the world that blend beautifully with their own voices.

Their sound is something old and new all at once and the perfect note on which to end a long day's journey.

♪ ♪ When the morning breaks, you are on my mind ♪ ♪ And all the things that we've been through ♪ ♪ But in the dead of night ♪ ♪ There's no end in sight ♪ If I know I'm hurting you ♪ ♪ When I'm pushing you away ♪ ♪ I really wish that you would stay ♪ ♪ Please forgive me, I'm trying to work it through ♪ ♪ And be kind to you ♪ 'Cause I don't want to lose a friend like you ♪ ♪ On a mountain high, I close my eyes ♪ ♪ And think of how it used to be ♪ ♪ If you needed me, I'd be at your side ♪ ♪ I only hope that you know ♪ ♪ When I'm pushing you away ♪ ♪ I really wish that you would stay ♪ ♪ Please forgive me, I'm trying to work it through ♪ ♪ And be kind to you ♪ 'Cause I don't want to lose a friend like you ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In our lives ♪ We are there for each other ♪ ♪ And when we try ♪ There's more left to sacrifice ♪ ♪ I'm on your side ♪ There's no need to run and hide ♪ ♪ So please tell me if you know the reason why ♪ ♪ When I'm pushing you away ♪ ♪ I really wish that you would stay ♪ ♪ Please forgive me, I'm trying to work it through ♪ ♪ And be kind to you ♪ When I'm pushing you away ♪ ♪ I really wish that you would stay ♪ ♪ Please forgive me, I'm trying to work it through ♪ ♪ And be kind to you ♪ I don't want to lose a friend like you ♪ ♪ No, I don't want to lose a friend like you ♪ MICHAEL: Thanks for joining me on my mad dash around the country.

I'm Michael Londra and I hope to see you next time on Ireland with Michael.

For now, cheers.

Sláinte.

ANNOUNCER: Want to continue your travels to Ireland?

A deluxe Ireland with Michael DVD featuring all episodes of Season One plus bonus concert footage is available for $30.

Season Two plus bonus concert footage is available for $30.

A copy of the Ireland with Michael Companion Travel Guide featuring places to visit, as seen in Seasons One and Two, is also available for $30.

ANNOUNCER: This offer is made by Wexford House.

Shipping and handling is not included.

MICHAEL: To learn more about everything you've seen in this episode, go to IrelandWithMichael.com.

ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael was made possible by... ♪ ANNOUNCER: Whether traveling to Ireland for the first time, or just longing to return, there's plenty more information available at Ireland.com.

♪ ANNOUNCER: CIE Tours, sharing the magic of Ireland for 90 years.

♪ ANNOUNCER: Aer Lingus has been bringing people home since 1936.

If you are thinking about Ireland, Aer Lingus is ready when you are to take you home.

MICHAEL: OK, put your hands up in the air!

Come on, let's get a-waving.

♪ In my heart its rightful queen ♪ ♪ Ever loving, ever tender ♪ MICHAEL: That's it.

♪ Ever true ♪ Like the Sun your smile has shone ♪ MICHAEL: Go on, Wexford.

♪ Gladdening all it glowed upon ♪ ♪