The Waterboys in Doolin

The town of Doolin.

Before we left Killarney, Mr. O’Connor had arranged for us to stay in a hotel near the Cliffs of Moher. He wrote down the directions: A few miles after the Cliffs, you’ll come to a fuel station and a crossroads. Turn left down the hill towards the sea. This will bring you into the village of Doolin. The Hotel Doolin will be on your right as you come in to the village.

Doolin is one of those wee places that you wonder why they’re even there. After we’d checked in to our rooms, we asked the woman at the front desk where we might go for lunch. Well, there were only three possibilities, she said. There were two pubs and a restaurant in the hotel itself. We decided to go to a pub so we walked along Fisher Street (the only real street in town) to McGann’s which looks just exactly the way an Irish pub should look with paneled walls and dark little nooks and crannies where you might try to get fresh with a colleen, and a menu that focuses on seafood chowder and fish & chips with mushy peas.

When our waitress, who was also the bartender, brought us a couple of pints of the black stuff, I asked her why people came to Doolin. Well, there’s the ferry from here to the Arran Islands, she said, but they also come for the trad music. Micho Russell and his brothers, Packie and Gussie, have played here, she said, as well as Sharon Shannon. No doubt she could tell by the look on my face that I had no idea who those people were.

What about Stevie Wickham, she said. Certainly you’ve heard of The Waterboys. I sadly shook my head. She put her hands on her hip and turned her head towards two old gents sitting in the corner nursing their pints. Can you believe it, she said, these two have never heard of The Waterboys? The two old gents didn’t say a word although one of them raised his eyebrows.

A few minutes later, the woman was back with our seafood chowder. She also brought two fresh pints, although we hadn’t ordered them. When I pointed that out to her, she waved me off and said, That’s on the house. Then she pointed her index finger at one of the speakers in a corner of the ceiling. Do you hear that now? she said. I nodded. Well, then, now you can say you’ve heard The Waterboys at McGann’s in Doolin.

And so I can.

Tags: ,