The ClanDonnell 2020 Tour was not much of a tour. 2020 was not that much of a year, for that matter.

The coronavirus did not offer much in the way of opportunities for storytelling in front of a live audience. Those folks who typically host such events were too responsible to host a super-spreader event. And I, for one, was in not about to participate in one.

We were able to pull off one live event – in February before the lock-down. It was with the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Traverse City, Michigan.

Plus we did two virtual events. We sent a video to the Dublin, Ohio, Irish Festival for its virtual festival. We didn’t see the virtual presentation so don’t know if our video was used.

We also did a story for the Galway Bay’s virtual Celtic Music Feis in Ocean Shores, Washington.

And we did a story-swap via Zoom, with the Storytellers of Ireland. SOI’s annual meeting was in November. It was the typical affair, with the election of the executive committee, review of the affairs of last year and the plans for next year, etc., etc., with all of the routine stuff organizations have to do from time to time.

Interesting footnote, though. Storytellers of Ireland made a reasonable “profit” last year. That’s because it collected dues and revenue from other sources, as usual. But it had very few expenses in 2020 – simply because the pandemic prevented it from running any programs!

Many of us stuck around after the meeting and swapped stories. I thoroughly enjoyed telling one, and listening to many.

And, of course, we started a weekly podcast – Random Thoughts from County Antrim.

We had other gigs, listed below, which were booked before the coronavirus outbreak. They were all cancelled. We didn’t even try to line up other events after the Spring.