Tour Ireland with Jim & Judy Clancy
(Last modified: $Date: 2006/03/08 20:01:44 $)
Once again MHBQA is sponsoring a travel trip to combine sightseeing with singing barbershop. This time it was an irresistible combination. First of all, Jim and Judy Clancy (of the Vocal Majority) have never been to Ireland... and how much more Irish can you get than "Clancy?" Jim and Judy are delightful people; sharing experiences with them as they discover Ireland will be much fun. Combine this with the magical opportunity to sing for this legendary director, and you get a trip that will be a lifetime highlight. It will, of course, be a "mixed barbershop chorus," singing men's arrangements in the men's key.
Dates are August 13-21, 2006 and the basic cost of the tour is $1799 per person (You can get your air travel on your own, or buy the package deal through the travel company handling the tour. For details, see Larivee Company Tours. Costs are there under the section "Tour Inclusions." Once you click on that, it is titled "Proposed costing and inclusions!" Airfare is direct from a gateway city to Dublin via Aer Lingus, with the return from Shannon (NOT Dublin) to your individual gateway city.
Since we do not want to spend the trip time in rehearsals, the chorus repertoire will consist of the current Barberpole Cat Songs along with one or two other "almost polecat" songs. Since everyone should be familiar with the notes and words of all songs, we'll be focusing on following Jim's direction to add that special "Clancy magic" to the songs as we sing!
There is already one mixed quartet signed up, Mixed Metafour, and there are others in the process of forming. Any "registered" quartet will, of course, be included in all of the performance packages.
Overnights are - except for the last one - for two consecutive nights: Dublin, Cork, and Kilarney. The final night will be in Limerick, with a banquet and party at Bunratty Castle. Sightseeing and singing opportunities will include Dublin City, Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Blarney Castle & Woolen Mills, the Ring of Kerry, Laurels Singing Pub, and Limerick City. Best of all, you will be sharing all of this with Jim and Judy, as they discover his "roots" in the magic of the Emerald Isle. The group will be very small; currently everyone will fit into the one 48-passenger bus.
As we said about our legendary Alaska Millenium Magic Cruise with Jim and Judy in 2000, "We'll do this only once!"