Had a really fun time (or as the irish say, good craic) last night at Mickey John’s in Queens. My friend Joey had a surprise party for her mom who had just arrived from Ireland to visit. Joey hired an accordian player who sang and played some old irish tunes. There were a bunch of us, and all of a sudden one of the guys says, maybe I’ll play my Uilleann pipes! It was so cool, and definitely not something you see everyday. I guess they are sort of similar to bagpipes except that you pump air into them instead of blowing. The sound is rich and haunting.

We all danced irish jigs and “jived” (swing danced). It was a blast. Then his brother sang some irish tunes a capella about the hardships of moving away from Ireland to live in a new country and they almost made me cry!

In the cab back home DD and I talked about how unique and wonderful the night had been. DD said that the songs were so much more poignant when sang by an Irishman who had emigrated over to America.