It’s taken me 20 years! But I’ve just figured what the image of Kilkenny’s Market Cross is all about. And something tells me that I’ve seen the 4 columns at the doorway of some Palladian mansion somewhere?

Hole In The Wall Kilkenny

It was something else. It all happened thanks to Steve Reilly turning up one St Patrick’s night. We were still only selling wine. He got up on a stool and started to play in the tavern. It became a weekly event and he used ‘command’ the setting and lift the hearts of all. Following a trip to a conference in New Orleans, one returned with a stainless steel washboard - frattoir. Bought on Bourbon St and even played that night with the washboard player. It led to the idea of a Cajun band called NovAScotia. By coincidence the name Ascot was in the middle - the name of my Dad’s band in the 1970s. French Saxophonist Thierry Millet led and played a string of Cajun tunes. Thanks to an advert Anthony joined on banjo. Emmet turned up via a job in the bar. (The drummer on the night was a US customer). Aishling was catalytic on guitar and Dave Prim played bass. With yours truly doing pigeon French vocals (badly)we performed a good few times. Until one night the band gave up! From that grew the Steve Reilly Session on Fridays and Saturdays. A host of instruments got played. Even the sax, coconuts from the Caribbean and Gabbi Doran in the stones. It was electric. It’s up there with the best sessions. Bursting with energy.

‘La Bohème’ - by the Nore - 2020 Dawn Choral!

Hole in the Wall est fermé maintenant

Hole in the Wall was closed as soon as news came from France that the pubs, cafés etc were to close - I closed it at 20.00 10 days ago. The front gate seems to be being opened a lot. People seeking to see if it can be visited? No, it ain’t open, I’m sorry to say. I have been draconian in my approach to SARS-Cov-2. Physical distancing - largely since returning from France 3 weeks ago. Every day a memory surfaces regarding music etc. It might be that Steve Reilly’s ‘Past the Point of Rescue’ by Mick Hanley (whom I see frequently on his daily walks in Thomastown) is the appropriate anthem? Because it may be very hard to open it again? That the song might be relevant for some who will get infected is rather chilling! Paris as seen 3 weeks ago. Even more so now?

Photos from Hole In The Wall Kilkenny's post

France has closed its bars. Hole in the Wall will close now too until further notice. The well being of staff, customers, and indirectly our local patients is paramount. We might wait til the outcome from the Cheltenham returnees is clearer?

Crikey! First time she’d ever tried this! She’s from near Chester!

It’s 8.13 pm on a Mon night and dead as a rusty nail. Time to read the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson

6 Americans earlier. And it was like old times!

Photos from Hole In The Wall Kilkenny's post

A bit naughty? As a poster on the tavern door of Hole in the Wall! On a trip to Paris 10 days ago we came across Le Corona bar near the Louvre. And parked nearby was a van with a logo for a company named SARS! Nobody was around the van and nobody was drinking outside Le Corona at the pavement tables overlooking the Seine. One suspects that there’s few, if any, TB taverns out there? We felt pity for the Le Corona proprietor - and planned to go drink there. Didn’t make it. Let’s hope he survives til we make the next trip? Will Covid 19 turn out to be of rhino impact? Buy shares in any business hit. Maybe even Le Corona bar, Paris? Once the vaccine is available and the anti-viral drugs are invented business will get rocking again. And the shares will increase in value. The gamble, of course, is that airlines etc might have collapsed by then?

Photos from Hole In The Wall Kilkenny's post

Hole in the Wall has had a tough winter. It continues to struggle. And yet it survives. And has newer energy. And a new sound system in the snug and a new controller upstairs (via Thor Zellor) (imminent). Hole in the Wall is also focused out West. And finding lots of material for ‘Stories Told’ to do with shipwrecks, visitors to the West in Victorian times and in the 1900s etc. A story of particular curiosity concerns Lady Chatterton’s Bathing Box. Not Lady Chatterley!

Some of the lines from ‘The Parting Glass’ are relevant to Boris’s Brexit! Europeans were ‘good company’ + ‘sweethearts’ and ‘harm’ ‘done to’ itself, ‘sorry for going away’, ‘stay’