Holland, Michigan – June 2019

We told some Irish tales and yarns to help The Curragh Traditional Irish Pub celebrate its 15th anniversary in Holland. The owners planned quite a Rí Rá and we’re excited to be part of it.

It was a two day affair. Friday’s affair included ClanDonnell storytelling from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. Guinness was there as well. (Not Arthur Guinness himself, but someone from the Guinness company.) Patrons received an engraved glass, plus a pint of Guinness.

Rí Rá, by the way, comes from the Irish Rí Rá Agus Ruaile Buaili, which generally means a ruckus, or at least good fun, usually associated with fine food and either a pint of Guinness or Uisce Beatha. Uisce Beatha, by the way, literally means water of life and the first word is pronounced an awful lot like whiskey.

We had a brilliant time at The Curragh. We told some stories, help sell some Guinness, and did whatever we could to help the pub celebrate its 15th anniversary in Holland.

We knew going in that there are more than one common uses of the word curragh. The pub’s website didn’t state which one was the source of the pub’s name, so we took a gamble. And of course, we got it wrong.

We started the set with the story of the boat common in the west of Ireland, known as the curragh, which is sometimes spelled in English as currac. The word is sometimes pronounced KER-rig, and sometimes KER-ick, and sometimes KER-ah. And then we told the tale of the Curragh and the voyage of St. Brendan.

The pub uses the KER-ah pronunciation. But the pub is not named after the boat at all! It’s named after the Irish horse racing course.

Photograph by Linda McDonnell