Now of necessity we have had to split this trip into several parts of which this is part the first. The reason we have split the trip up into parts was that it was a whopper of a trip out and it would take ages to blog it in one part we have done it in many parts. The first of which is ranelagh the home of the former minister for injustice Michael Macdowell. We didnt see him on this occasion however we did see lots of ranelagh though, some of which you can see in the photos. Ranelagh is a cool cosmolpolitan place on the fringes of the city center but it still manages to retain the atmosphere of a village. Well maybe i am exaggerating somewhat but is does not quite feel like the center of a major city. It also had the advantage that the Fanzinis were able to mount a music buying expedition into Tower records and hmv with the help of the Luas. It was my first time on the Luas and i have to say i was relatively unimpressed it was grand i suppose.
We did however get to perform on the Luas itself or at least on a platform next to the Luas to the delight/bemusement of the commuters who were on their way to work or to otherwise get on with their lives. Its all part of our philosophy of bringing the art to the people. That and the fact that terry our gaffer for the day was into working our fingers to the bone. In fairness all the time that we spent with Terry was an experience that could not be bettered as Terry is a human whirlwind of energy and enthuasism who brought us on an intimate tour of Ranelagh which took in some great looking houses including his own home. The only word that does justice to Terry is to call him an impressario of sorts he also took us into various coffee houses in the greater Ranelagh area.
Now in fairness you can see from the photos that the crowds were great in terms of the amount of people who attended our shows but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in enthuaism this was partly due to our Roy Keane inspired give it 100% attitude and it really paid off for those lucky members of the audience who had the good seats as they passed by in their cars, much like the people on the Luas.
You should check out this festival programme online as it is a great mix of highbrow and middlebrow stuff and also the official arts fest photographer (Darragh Owens) got some cool shots of the fanzinis. One other really cool arts event as part of the festival is the Ranelagh heads which is a display of large photos in the main square at ranelagh of the plain people of Ranelagh from down the years in Kerry they would be called the old stock. These are elderly and not so old people from the Ranelagh area who down through the years have lived and worked in Ranelagh and made the place what it is. The photos themselves were accompanied by a short bio or spiel describing the people themselves and their contribution to the fabric of ranelagh. One of these people was a Mrs Doherty who just happens to be the mom of one Ken Doherty the famous snooker player and fancy waistcoat wearer like the fanzinis, ken himself popped along to see the photos with his mom; nice that, so meself and Ronaldo got to hang out and do some celebrity spotting which was easy cos he was the only celebrity around. All in all a nice arty idea those photos.
As food on this part of the adventure we made sure to eat in the excelent Diep resturant which is located in the center of Ranelagh which serves great Thai and oriental food. We were lucky enough to get a table at short notice on the first night and we liked it so much that we had a take out meal from their take out menu to eat on the road as we begun the next leg of our trip on the way to Clifden on the opposite side of the country. Considering that we bailed out of Ranelagh at after 6 in the evening we were lucky to arrive in Clifden very late in the day. Looked forward to Clifden as the people are lovely the scenery is nice and we get to hook with the mighty Jim from Belfast the man with the plan and a pipe

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