I was wondering if their would be many around on Sunday night as I approached Rosatos. There seemed to be a good crowd at Maguires – but there often is on a Sunday night. I was most surprised to see, when I went in the door, that there was a bigger crowd there than there was on the Saturday night. Many of them were unknown to me.

I was even more surprised to see Paddy the Shoe playing music. I caught Eddie in passing and asked him where the crowd had come from. I had expected it to be a wedding crowd and Eddie confirmed it. They had been there since mid-afternoon too. The first order had been for 27 pints of Guinness and 10 pints of cider.

Merry Men

It was a good-humoured crowd. Many of them were merry. Others were very merry and others were very, very merry but it all remained good-humoured.

Fun broke out in Rosatos as has not been seen in many a day. There were guest singers and dancers who gave impromptu performances and others who were not as skilled gave impromptu performances too.

Paddy is perfect for such occasions. He must know more than a thousand songs, and even if he doesn’t know them he can play along with someone who wants to sing. There’s some great young acts around Moville but none has the repertoire of songs that Paddy has.

The guests seem to have come from far and wide with English and Scottish voices to be heard amongst the Irish ones. I think they had a pretty good night too and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them back again.