Fleadh in Ballyduff
Yesterday the sun was euphoric and so was the little main street and school and community hall of Ballyduff in West Waterford. It was time for the annual summer celebration with trad music played on multiple stages through the day by people of all ages, including young children. Kids with icecream on their faces, a chipper on wheels serving its fare, adults clustered outside the four pubs, sipping pints or simply minerals — Ballyduff has four pubs– and amiably chatting. The scene was unhurried, warm, innocent, and altogether uplifting. In the evening the scene moved into them where one session spun on toward the wee hours. You could not ask for a more relaxed atmosphere than this, and here rural Ireland has not lost its charms, no, not beside this majestic stretch of the Blackwater.
