Despite having been in Ireland for well over a week at this point, Wednesday night was the first night we went out to an Irish pub. Isabelle had really wanted to hear authentic Irish music, and luckily Donegal Town has several pubs and restaurants around the central plaza which offer live music seven days a week. I did some cursory investigations and found that the Reel Inn had high marks for its atmosphere, staff, drinks, and entertainment. We headed out the door at 7:30PM on the recommendation of several reviewers who said that the place fills up fast after 8:00PM as the music started at 8:30PM.

Isabelle got us a good seat along the wall, facing where we assumed the musicians would be playing, and sure enough, people started flooding in before too long. There were a few empty seats in ones and twos, and the front room of the house was mainly standing room only, but we did have a commanding view of the entertainment when they started playing a little before 8:30.

Unfortunately I don’t know who they were; the guitarist was John, but I don’t know who was playing the banjo. The bald dude was a friend of theirs, but wasn’t playing with them. They played a good number of expected tunes, such as Irish Rover and Whiskey in the Jar, and even played a few somewhat contemporary songs with an Irish bent alongside a few songs we hadn’t heard before. They also included the traditional “Seven Drunken Nights”…but included the last two verses which I was not familiar with, as most places where you might hear this one probably wouldn’t include them. 😁

After the first few songs, one of the pub employees starting coming around to shoo people to the edges of the room, and then started re-arranging furniture. That’s right: we also had dancers.

Three girls we assume were from an Irish step dancing school as there was an older girl (early 20’s, possibly) and two younger girls (maybe around 13). They performed for about 20-25 minutes and at the end, they called up six members of the audience and taught them some basic steps before launching into a performance. I didn’t do it, of course…but Isabelle did. She told me not to post the video I totally have of the event, but for $25 I can send it to you anonymously if you’re interested…