Sligo

Our first show was in Sligo, in the West.
To get there, head for the highway and follow the signs that say THE WEST.
(Click on the photo to see a larger version.)

Funny phonetic misspelling suggests characteristic local pronunciation.

Agitated Radio Pilot opened at McGarrigle's (you forgive the corny Irish pub names
when you're actually in Ireland). Dave, center, sent tapes to Dennis Callaci for
years, until Dennis offered to release one on Shrimper. Correctly fearing
his life might never be the same, Dave has yet to write back.

View from the stage. Front center is Jonni, who lives in Dublin now but grew up here
and used his local connections to set up the show. You've met John and
Robert, at right; to the right of John is his girlfriend Niamh,
pronounced, miraculously, Neve.

Sligo is Yeats country, and next morning we paid a visit to his grave at Drumcliff,
where the church is accompanied by Christian ruins going back to the sixth century.

Mist-shrouded form in the distance is 5000-ft-high flat-topped Benbulben,
as in, "Under bare Ben Bulben's head / In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid."

Sure enough, there he is.