Our quest to hear traditional music took us to several stops. The first evening we heard but two songs. The second, in Belfast, we heard a duo. They covered a number of songs by Christy Moore. They covered Dylan. They played well. We enjoyed the music. But it did not fit the bill of traditional.
On our final evening in Dublin, our final evening in Ireland, Tricia and I ventured to the Cobblestone with Joel and Roja. We talked. We consumed Guinness. We laughed. After a while, we said farewell as Roja and Joel left for a family dinner.
Tricia and I had another round as we waited. And the music began. Traditional. Soft. Sweet. Wondrous. We listened for an hour or so before we decided that the time had come for us to return to our hotel. I made a trip to the men’s room before we did so. On my way back, I looked above our seats. There I saw, present all the time but unnoticed until that moment, an expression of solidarity:
See you along the Trail.
Along the Graybeard Trail 