April 13--Clifden

We awoke to a brilliantly sunny morning, perfect for Palm Sunday.  We planned to attend the Trad Music mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in city center.  After a lovely breakfast in the sunroom of The Quay House, where we met another traveler from Michigan.  John, a retired pharmacist, was visiting Clifden for the 15th year and was soon to be on his way to Ardara.  What a small world it is!

At St. Joseph's, we participated in a mass that "staged" the Passion of Christ by multiple individuals reading portions of the Gospel of Mark.  The priest read the part of Jesus and the congregation read the part of "the crowd."  During the service, children of the parish brought up gifts that reflected the presence of trad music and dance in their lives...dancing shoes, musical instruments, etc.  During communion, several female deacons assisted in distributing the hosts.  Trad music punctuated the service.  All in all, it was a lovely Palm Sunday service and my first attendance at a Catholic mass since I had attended with my parents when they moved to Covington.  

Just before we left St. Joseph's, we lit candles for each of our parents.  Following mass, we briefly stopped at Mallerky's Bar, for the closing trad session.  We headed to Mitchell's Bar for lunch where John had oysters and I had a delicious crab salad.  


On our way back to The Quay House, we drove out the 
estuary roadway to its end, where the Clifden Boat Club 
had a small structure.  We watched as the tide began to 
return before heading to our room, where we repacked 
our suitcases and enjoyed a final picnic dinner with our 
last bottle of wine and our various picnic items.  John 
toasted "peat and repeat" in honor of the fire that Paddy 
had set in our fireplace and I toasted "the drive along the estuary."  After dinner, we watched a Denzel Washington movie on the room tv before turning in for the night.