Ireland. My second trip to the small, folk music filled nation, the first being an infamous Matt Heckler journey to the Cliffs of Moher from 2019 ( • Matt Heckler, "Ain't No Ash Will Burn... ). This trip was supposed to be a big tour with our new friends, the raucous Irish band of lunatics, The Mary Wallopers. COVID had other plans, of course, and Matt had to drop off. I decided there was only so much time in life, and went through with it anyways, having already bought tickets for passage. It was a decision i'll never regret, or forget.
When I arrived in Dublin I texted Charles, from the Wallopers. Take the bus to Dundalk, he said, and when you arrive call a Black Rock cab and tell them to take you to The Mary Walloper's house. Wow, I thought, they must be well known. I didn't have phone service yet, so I started my way there old-school style, disconnected. When I arrived in Dundalk, I went to the bus station and asked for a Black Rock cab.
When the cab arrived, I got in and told him to take me to the street the Wallopers told me to go to. "Never heard of it, and I've lived here all me life," the driver told me in an accent so thick I could barely make it out. Unsure what to do, my phone without service, 10000 miles from home, I sat helpless as he drove around. About ten minutes later, he miraculously remembers the road. "Do ye know the house number?" he asked as we drive out to the middle of nowhere, farm fields on either side. "The Mary Wallopers house," I answered, as Charles had instructed.
"Never heard of them." he replied. So much for being well known. I sat back again, unsure what to do. We drive down a road that feels like something Tolkien had written about, old twisted Ent-like trees canopy on either side, rolling green hills and old stone walls passing by.
"If it's this old cottage at the end, I tink I know the one," the driver's memory sparks up, apparently out of nowhere once again. He drives me up to an old farm house, with several old cars and boats in various states of disassembly. I get out and he immediately drives off, leaving me very hopeful this is the house, because if it isn't i'm stranded. Charles had left a key above the door, so burglar-esque I feel around the frame and, to my surprise, find it. I'm at the right place, home alone at the Mary Walloper's HQ. They'd been at a session the night before, so I wait it out. Several hours later, they arrive back, apologizing for having had car trouble (a theme that will replay multiple times, I find).
The next day, they took me to this castle, and a winding tour of the border lands between Ireland and Northern Ireland. They tell me stories, tales, some tall some short, and give me the history of the battles, the characters and the songs that make up their lives. This is the first song, the first installment of a many part series, and I hope you love it as much as I did.
Want more Wallopers?
https://www.marywallopers.com/
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