Irish Session in Australia

I'm back in Queensland, Australia and have been going each Sunday to the Irish session again in Finbar's Irish Bar, Maleny. There's always a good crowd of musicians and a large appreciative audience in the bar who applaud at the end of each tune or song even though the TV is showing the Rugby League match at the same time! It's a perfect evening for me - playing traditional music and watching rugby at the same time (even though it's league not union.) In this first photo I'm caught playing and watching the rugby.
The piper and the fiddle player with her back to the camera are from Cobh in County Cork.

A speciality of the pub is the wonderful pizzas they sell. Many are sold while the session is on.

The photo below is taken the week before my daughter Amy's wedding. She can be seen behind me below with my wife behind her. There were a group of ten of us from England that evening.

Even my son Andrew managed to join in on tin whistle.

John, the landlord is very supportive of the session and will always join in if he's not too busy (and sometimes when he is) on his low whistle or with a song, as he is in the photo below.

Irish Session in Australia

I'm in Australia visiting my daughter and family on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Yesterday we drove up into the Blackall Mountains (The Hinterland as it's known) to Maleny - about a 35 minute drive. There I took part in an Irish Session at Finbar's - a bar run by an Irish man. There were eight of us playing fiddles, mandolin, guitar, whistle, keyboard and bodhran.

It was a most enjoyable evening spent playing familiar and not so familiar Irish tunes in a really friendly atmosphere. It's amazing that you can travel halfway round the world and feel so at home - almost like being with The Haddenham Shamrocks!

I even ended up doing a couple of songs on the guitar I bought on Australian ebay!

Details of sessions in Brisbane and surrounding areas can be found at http://users.tpg.com.au/folkrag