Several days ago, our webmaster discovered three video clips in an archive from Martin Doyle’s trip to New Zealand in December of 2014. But first, a couple of anecdotes…
Poor Martin! He stayed in Christchurch for three weeks, and for the first week he was stuck in bed with a nasty bug that had latched on to him during the long flights from Ireland to New Zealand. Exhausted from his pre-Christmas rush to get his flute orders out to customers before his holiday, Martin had become vulnerable to airplane bugs. As if that wasn’t enough, during the period of his illness, an earthquake gave the area a good shake in the wee hours of one morning and the old bed that Martin was sleeping on partially collapsed. It was a real welcome to “The Shaky Isles“, as New Zealand is sometimes called. Remarkably Martin seemed to almost enjoy his first time experience of that aspect of nature’s power!
Having recovered from the dreaded lurgy and the quake, Martin did get a chance to have a look around Christchurch and the Canterbury region. During that time he was a guest at The Lotus-Heart vegetarian restaurant where he offered a couple of informal music sessions with some local musicians and small but appreciative audiences. Here are three video clips from those sessions that we posted on Martin’s YouTube channel recently. The local musicians are Shardul (Irish flute), John Wood (guitar and vocals), Jade Bell (bodhrán and vocals), Rowan Oliver (Irish harp) and her father Peter Oliver (guitar).
The following words are from the generous heart of Cathal McConnell:
This year marks the 30th anniversary since 
