MICHAEL: Welcome to Ireland with Michael.

I'm Michael Londra, and in this show, I get to tell you everything I love about my home country the best way I know how, through music.

Behind me are the Blasket Islands, among the many dramatic vistas to be found along the Dingle Peninsula, and home to an abandoned village hearkening back to a way of life now lost.

The people all across this strip of land into the sea couldn't be more welcoming nor more talented.

Not only are the streets of Dingle town filled with music, but the artisans to be found around every corner have spent their lives honing their trades.

Whether it be cheese, whiskey, or gold, their creation best tells the story of this peninsula.

♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael is made possible by... ♪ ANNOUNCER: Whether traveling to Ireland for the first time or just longing to return, there's plenty more information available at Ireland.com.

♪ ANNOUNCER: CIE Tours, sharing the magic of Ireland for nearly 90 years.

♪ ANNOUNCER: Aer Lingus has been bringing people home since 1936.

If you're thinking about Ireland, Aer Lingus is ready when you are to take you home.

MICHAEL: Hawaii, California, and County Kerry, all of them first-class surfing destinations.

Yes, that's right.

Although, it's calm today, the freezing waters of the wild Atlantic can serve up some of the gnarliest waves found anywhere, making this, Inch Beach, one of the many coveted spots drawing surfers from around the world to the west coast of Ireland, but if you do go for a dip, you're going to need a wetsuit.

These waters range from cold to bitterly cold, so I'm not about to take the plunge myself.

♪ As we travel farther out onto the peninsula on our way into Dingle town, there's a pub I want to stop by.

I know, I know, typical, but trust me, there's a fantastic story here that illustrates the call of the open seas all around us.

It may seem strange that here in the little village of Annascaul, there's a pub named for the South Pole, nearly a planet away but the explanation can be found just across the street.

Annascaul is the proud birthplace of one Tom Crean, an Antarctic explorer during the Heroic Age at the beginning of the last century, and there's few who can claim hero status more than old Tom, who was one of the finest sailors aboard three separate voyages attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Tom never did get to his journey's end, but he returned to his home village, and when he bought the local pub, he renamed it, remarking as he did that he'd finally made it to the South Pole.

♪ I'm about ready for cheese and whiskey by now, but when Irish music legend, Joanie Madden of Cherish the Ladies, invites you over to her house, well, there's no saying no.

Joanie Madden, there are musicians in my life that I love, and there are musicians uh, in my life that are heroes to me, and you most certainly are one of those people.

I'm so inspired, uh, by you.

Thanks so much for having us in your home here in Ireland.

JOANIE: Well, you showed up at the door, so I had to let you in (laughs).

No, great to welcome you into my home.

MICHAEL: I know that recently, uh the National Endowment of the Arts awarded you their Heritage Award, which is truly a, uh a remarkable but inevitable thing to happen to Joanie Madden.

How does it feel to be honored...?

JOANIE: Well, this is the Big Kahuna.

As I said, it's like, it's like winning the Olympics.

It's just, to me, to win it, not just for being an Irish-American, but very important to win it for our culture for me, to see, 'cause even though I'm, I play Irish music for a living, I've traveled around the world, the fact that I've been so fortunate to have the community, the Irish community in America have been behind me since I started, and I'd be nowhere without them.

So, um, I'm, I'm thrilled to bring...

There's only been 15 of the 500 or so people who have won this award that have been Irish musicians or dancers, MICHAEL: I did not know that.

JOANIE: So, um, you know, it's wonderful to bring this to our community, because, seriously, you know yourself, what are... where are we without a ticket?

If they didn't buy tickets, if they didn't support us, MICHAEL: We'd be nowhere.

So would you do me a favor?

Would you play me a few tunes uh, just to remind everybody uh, why you got that award?

JOANIE: Well, maybe, you know, let's get jigging.

Will we get jigging?

MICHAEL: I'd love a few jigs.

(Joanie chuckles) JOANIE: Here we go.

♪ Whoo, you jigging, Michael?

MICHAEL: I'm jigging.

(Joanie laughs) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JOANIE: Whew!

(all laugh).

♪ MICHAEL: Feeling absolutely inspired and with a jiggy spring in my step, at last I can see the clear waters of the bay and the bright facades of Dingle town, a place filled with artisans.

There are almost too many small businesses to choose from, each making local goods of a rare quality.

That being said, there's really no question for me where I'll be going first.

So Mark Murphy, the first time I came across you was last Christmas, online, when I was ordering cheese for all my friends in Ireland, and I knew that when I was coming to Dingle, that this would be my first stop.

MARK: Ah, good.

Well, you're very welcome.

MICHAEL: I'm, I'm a mad, passionate cheese fan.

How did you get uh to be selling cheese here in a, a gorgeous town like Dingle?

MARK: Well, The Little Cheese Shop itself has been here for about 10 years.

It's a great little shop, like, and what I try to focus on is just really showing off the cheese here from Ireland.

So about 95% of the cheese always here is from Ireland, it is from Irish uh cheese-makers.

MICHAEL: Can you tell me about Dingle cheese?

Uh, I, you're known for dairy down here.

MARK: The area, yeah.

We're blessed with... We've a lot of dairy farmers, but then we would have a lot of, say, lamb farmers as well, that might not necessarily be using their, their animals for cheese.

MICHAEL: Can you tell me about those cheeses?

MARK: Yeah, so like the style, there's no definite style here of cheese-making.

MICHAEL: Ah.

MARK: Like you know, what a lot of them focus on is maybe the actual, particular animal.

MICHAEL: I think it's about time I tasted a bit of cheese, don't you?

MARK: I thought you would say some wine.

(both laugh) MICHAEL: Too early in the day for that.

MARK: Yeah, yeah.

Now one thing...

I'll give you... We'll start off with this one here.

This one will be an aged Gouda from Killorglin.

Killorglin's about a half an hour from here.

This itself would be...

It's a three-year-old Gouda, so it's a little over three years.

Lovely and rich, lovely and nutty, as well.

MICHAEL: Oooh MARK: Like, when anyone that's looking at this, like when you're thinking of Ireland, you should be thinking about the the reason why we have such great grass is because of all the rain we have, the lovely damp climate, it makes great grass, then it makes great cheese.

Then we'll give you, d'you know, a little taste of this guy here.

This will be Carlow Sheep.

So you've gone, we're gone up the country, now, a little bit.

So we're gone up, say, southeast Ireland.

MICHAEL: Closer to where I'm from.

MARK: Ya and myself, yeah, I'm from County Carlow myself, yeah.

MICHAEL: Oh are you?

MARK: This one's about a month old, lovely sort of sweetness to that.

MICHAEL: Oh, yeah, sweet.

MARK: What you're gonna find with the cheese industry in Ireland, you're probably going back about 45 years when we've seen the the rise of the artisan cheese -maker in Ireland.

and all of them that's here, like there's now about, I think there's about 80 cheese makers in Ireland, what we try to do when people come in here, as well, is we try to educate them a little bit about Irish cheese.

MICHAEL: Right!

MARK: So, yeah, hope you love that.

MICHAEL: Well, just know that I am gonna be back.

Uh, the combination of Dingle and a load of cheese MARK: And wine.

MICHAEL: And wine.

MARK: Yeah (laughs) MICHAEL: We won't forget that.

Thanks.

MARK: Thanks, Michael, a pleasure meeting you.

♪ MICHAEL: With cheese in hand, I walk just down the street to a place where that local dairy is being put to a slightly sweeter use.

At Murphy's Ice Cream, you will find flavors that can't be found anywhere else, and that's because the ingredients come from right here.

So Sean, I know Kerry accents, and you do not have a Kerry accent.

Would you like to explain to me?

SEAN: I grew up in New York, just outside of New York City, and as the son of two immigrants, so my dad was from Cork, and, um, I grew up there, always hearing about this magical place of, of Ireland, you know, and I didn't come over till I was 18.

MICHAEL: Oh, right!

SEAN: Amazingly, yeah, yeah, because we didn't travel that much.

This was way back in the, you know, centuries ago, when I was... MICHAEL: Back in the day.

Right, exactly.

Um, and uh, and then finally came over, I just fell in love with the place.

MICHAEL: Wow.

SEAN: It's just amazing do you know?

MICHAEL: So it's grown over the years.

What is at the heart of Murphy's Ice Cream?

SEAN: So it, look, it started out with us coming over, tasting the dairy over here, and saying, this dairy's like any... un... unlike anything we've tasted anywhere in the world, You know, MICHAEL: I agree.

SEAN: It's just better than anything, and so we were looking at featuring the dairy, and then we grew from there to featuring the brown bread, the local jam, any other products that are you know specific to this place, or to Ireland in general, so... MICHAEL: Did you say that your ice cream is flavored with local gin?

SEAN: With local gin, 100%.

They bring us the gin from the distillery in a jug, with all the fruits, and berries, and botanicals still in.

MICHAEL: Wow.

SEAN: We leave it two extra weeks, mix it into the ice cream, so it just goes like that in your mouth when you're eating it.

MICHAEL: I have to try the gin.

♪ SEAN: There you are.

MICHAEL: Gorgeous!

♪ Oh, my God, that is gorgeous!

MICHAEL: That gin ice cream really tastes like the real deal.

GRAHAM: Okay, so you've got the first wash still in today, and the furthest one away, that's the furthest... MICHAEL: I've traced Murphy's ingredient back to its source for a tour of the Dingle Distillery.

MICHAEL: What about over here?

GRAHAM: You've got the first batch MICHAEL: Where their first batch of whiskey has just come out of the cask.

GRAHAM: There, and through distillation.

MICHAEL: I was met by none other than the master distiller himself, Graham Coull.

So Graham, tell me, how does uh a Scotsman end up on the southwest uh part of this fair island?

GRAHAM: I made whiskey for 25 years in Scotland, in Speyside, and when the opportunity came up to move to Dingle, to the distillery in the town, I just grabbed it with both hands.

It was... an ideal opportunity.

MICHAEL: I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't pick a more gorgeous place to, to, to stay and work, right?

Make your life?

GRAHAM: No.

It's beautiful.

You know uh, what a lovely community!

We've been welcomed with open arms, you know, a Scotsman coming to tell the Irish how to make whiskey, of all things, but I tend to play that down, I don't overplay my cards.

MICHAEL: I hear ya.

Now, I uh will say that I'm all too familiar with Dingle gin, I mean, really familiar with Dingle gin, but can you tell me a bit about the Dingle whiskey that you've been making, and what makes it so special here uh in this beautiful part of the world?

GRAHAM: Yeah, well, again, the gin and the whiskey did start at the same time.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GRAHAM: But obviously, whiskey takes a little bit longer to come to fruition.

You you need to make it, you need to mature it in the casks, and so now, after six, seven, eight years now, of whiskey-making, where we're now really starting to get the whiskey out on the market, and, you know, it is, it is unique.

Everything that Dingle does adds its little bit of character to, to the whiskey.

We get the water from the well, which is 240 feet down.

MICHAEL: Oh.

GRAHAM: And then obviously we make it with the traditional equipment that we have here, and then we mature it in, in hopefully, what I think are some of the best casks in the world.

MICHAEL: Well, after a day of touring around a whiskey factory, there's only one thing for it.

MICHAEL: Graham, sláinte.

GRAHAM: Definitely, sláinte.

(glassed clink) ♪ MICHAEL: Oh!

Gorgeous!

GRAHAM: Lovely!

♪ MICHAEL: You'd think that a glass of fine Irish whiskey would be the end of my day, but I've to make one last stop on the edge of Dingle town for something that's as quintessentially Irish as our whiskey, the Celtic jewelry of Brian de Staic.

I was excited to speak to him in our shared Gaelic.

MICHAEL: A Bhrian, Cen Chaoi 'bhfuil tu BRIAN: Go Maith, Micheal.

Taimid an mhaith.

La Samhraigh Grian ag taitneamh amuigh agus taimid deaanaimh alright.

MICHAEL: That's great to hear.

Long have I known about the work of of Brian de Staic, uh I am from the other side of the country, uh down in Wexford, but you, sir, are uh the heart of Dingle uh, tell me about your work, and uh did you start out here in Dingle?

BRIAN: I didn't, actually, I was born in Cork, for my sins, but my father's a Kerry man, so I have uh half a passport to Kerry, so... (Michael laughs) MICHAEL: Your work uh in uh jewelry is very defined Irish work.

Uh you're inspired by everything around you.

BRIAN: Absolutely.

Where we live in this part of of of Ireland is one of the most, uh how would you call it, privileged areas to be living in uh if you have an artistic bent, you know, because there's so much inspiration.

History goes back thousands of years.

You know, we keep finding new stuff all the time Even recently, again, we found another thing, four and a half thousand years old, so.

MICHAEL: Uh I particularly love your work with Ogham.

Could you explain to me what Ogham is?

BRIAN: Yeah, Ogham is is fascinating, you know.

It's um it's probably developed around here in the southwest of Ireland.

Uh this is where we have most of the Ogham stones, which is what we have...

The only things that are left of the Ogham language is the on Ogham stones.

Uh we have lots of them around Dingle, as people would know.

Uh it goes back, the earliest date they have for it is, like, 200 AD.

Uh they worked on um, uh speech, you know.

You handed on your exp... your life, your stories, and your stories, to your next generation, who handed it on to the next generation who handed it on.

So that's how uh history was um kept here, in a sense, and the Ogham stones are part of that history, MICHAEL: Right.

MICHAEL: Is that why Irish people are still really good at talking?

BRIAN: I think it might be, alright.

(both laugh) MICHAEL: It seems that Dingle has a knack for attracting artisans and keeping them here, and it was time for me to explore the natural beauty that helps explain why.

If there's anything more picturesque than the land in Dingle, it's got to be the view from the water.

You're spoiled for choice on excursions out from the bay into the clear, blue Atlantic waters and all around the coves, caves, and cliffs of the peninsula.

♪ So Jimmy, you're here on the harbor, in the town you were born in, probably.

JIMMY: Absolutely, yeah, born and reared.

MICHAEL: How, how long have you been boating here in the harbor?

JIMMY: Uh well, look, I left school at 14 and went down the harbor.

We date back you know to three or four generations, so we're involved in the fishing and involved in water in some way for the last couple of hundred years.

But myself, I've been carrying passengers for over 33 years now.

MICHAEL: And tell us about the Sea Safari.

JIMMY: It's a high-speed, exhilarating uh spin back towards the Blasket Islands, uh and you... we take in the scenery, the geology, and the history of the islands.

We've got the puffins on the middle island, we've got deer on Inishvickillane, and you've got dolphins and whales, when we're lucky enough, and at the moment, there seems to be an abundance.

♪ MICHAEL: The ocean has always played an important role in the lives of the people here, and none more so than the islanders at Land's End.

We've left Dingle town and come to the edge of the world in order to connect back to island life as it was lived here for hundreds of years.

The Blasket Islands, uninhabited except for a small staff which lives on the Great Blasket without electricity or running water, are now a place of serenity, where wildlife thrives, but not 70 years ago, they were home to some 100-odd souls forming a close- knit settlement on the rim of Western Europe.

As they say, the next parish is the Bronx.

(waves crashing) I wanted to get a closer look at the remnants of those island inhabitants, only getting there is a bit more complicated than you might think.

Even now, well into the 21st century, the Blasket Islands are a difficult place to reach.

It's impossible for ferries to dock on those rough shores, and so once you've made the crossing, a small but hardy inflatable craft takes visitors the last of the way to witness the barren beauty to be seen at the very edge of these isles.

That is, if you can make it down the sharp, steep way into Dunquin Harbour.

The path's been used more than a century, so imagine bringing a herd of sheep down this madness.

It was an isolated existence of a quality reportedly much better than that of the mainland, at least in the mid-1700s.

In time, the people of the Blasket slowly emigrated away from their islands, and onto the mainland, or across the vast ocean to America.

When the sea would lash at those who remained, making it impossible at times for help to make the crossing, the last of the population requested that the Irish government evacuate them, ♪ and so in 1953, the islands were abandoned, only their stone cottages and walls remaining as even the thatched roofs were eroded by the wind and the rain of the years.

Fortunately, these islands gave rise to a handful of literary talents, who captured the twilight years of this unique part of the world.

The writings of Peig Sayers, Muiris O Súilleabháin, and Tomás O Criomhthain document what would have otherwise disappeared without a trace.

As Tomás wrote, "I've done my best "to set down the character of the people about me "so that some record of us might live after us, "for the like of us will never be again."

It's those many souls who left the Blaskets and all they knew behind to cross the daunting Atlantic in hopes of a better life, who I can relate to most.

For them, I wrote this song.

♪ The captain leads an ancient prayer ♪ ♪ For the souls who pay the dearest fare ♪ ♪ And bend our heads to pray that he ♪ ♪ Would carry us to home ♪ ♪ For home is what this land will be ♪ ♪ And the other I may never see ♪ ♪ At least from hardship I'll be free ♪ ♪ In America ♪ ♪ And in my heart I'll ever hold ♪ ♪ This land to me, forever gold ♪ ♪ And I can see my dream unfold ♪ ♪ In America ♪ The story of the Blaskets is a heavy one, but as we've seen today, all about Dingle town, Irish culture is alive and thriving, so to the center of Irish life I return once more, the pub, this one owned by a friend, the young David Geaney, who keeps Irish tradition alive in his feet.

DAVID: Hup!

♪ (shoes tapping) MICHAEL: David Geaney, I may be a lowly Irish tenor, but I know my Irish dancing, and uh you, to me, are the Irish dancer in the world.

We are here in your pub in uh one of my favorite parts in the world, where you learned to be a dancer.

DAVID: So yeah, I started when I was about five or six years of age.

I followed my older sister, Susie, um into Irish dancing.

She won a medal in a competition, and I just wanted the medal.

It could be in any sport, anything at all, (Michael laughs) I just wanted the medal.

♪ (shoes tapping) ♪ (shoes tapping) MICHAEL: You kind of gradually upgraded that interest to becoming a world champion, how many times?

DAVID: Five times, but the last five of those, we don't mention them ones (laughs).

MICHAEL: Yeah, you won five world titles.

I mean, that's pretty pretty impressive.

In your pub, in the middle... in the heart of Dingle town, you perform here almost nightly during the, during the holiday season, the summer season.

DAVID: Yeah.

Probably for the summer season, it's about nine months in Ireland, There's like a nine-month summer season in Dingle and three months of winter (laughs), so for, like, that nine months, I perform about six, seven nights a week here, so I love it.

I'm here all the time, so I might as well dance, and it's a, it's a huge attraction for people.

MICHAEL: So do you serve pints, and then go out and dance?

DAVID: Yeah, I always get asked, what time's the dancer on, and all this, and I'm always telling... speaking in the third person, and I'm, "Oh, he'll be later, he'll be later.

"He's on his way, "he's running late," and all this.

And then you just pop out, and they're like, "Oh, it was him all along."

♪ (shoes tapping) MICHAEL: So you don't only perform here in the pub.

I know that in the very near future, you're heading out into North America.

I am particularly excited, because you are coming to my local theater in Iowa, and I'll get to see this new, dynamic show that kind of mixes tradition, but is heading very much into the future.

Tell us about it.

DAVID: Absolutely, yeah, the show is called Velocity, um so it's all about the evolution of Irish music and dance down through the years.

So it starts back in the old traditions of Sean-nós, which is the old style of the dancing masters, and all of these are centuries old, but we move it forward through the years, and can you never know, you might be up doing a step with us yet (laughs).

MICHAEL: Uh, I might sing a tune, but there'll be no dancing.

DAVID: I'll hold you to that (laughs).

MICHAEL: All right, all right.

Thanks for having us here in Dingle.

DAVID: Thanks for having me.

(laughs) ♪ (shoes tapping) ♪ (shoes tapping) MICHAEL: Hup!

MICHAEL: Thanks for joining me on my travels around Dingle Peninsula.

I'm Michael Londra, and I'll hope to see you next time on Ireland with Michael, but for now, sláinte, cheers.

ANNOUNCER: Want to continue your travels to Ireland?

A deluxe Ireland with Michael DVD featuring all episodes of Season one and two, plus bonus concert footage is available for $30.

A copy of the Ireland with Michael companion travel guide featuring places to visit as seen in Seasons one and two is also available for $30.

A set of both is available for $55.

MICHAEL: To learn more about everything you've seen in this episode, go to IrelandWithMichael.com.

ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael was made possible by... ♪ ANNOUNCER: Whether traveling to Ireland for the first time or just longing to return, there's plenty more information available at Ireland.com.

♪ ANNOUNCER: CIE Tours, sharing the magic of Ireland for nearly 90 years.

♪ ANNOUNCER: Aer Lingus has been bringing people home since 1936.

If you're thinking about Ireland, Aer Lingus is ready when you are to take you home.

♪ MICHAEL: OK, put your hands up in the air!

Come on, let's get a-waving.

♪ In my heart its rightful queen ♪ ♪ Ever loving, ever tender ♪ MICHAEL: That's it.

♪ Ever true ♪ ♪ Like the Sun your smile has shone ♪ MICHAEL: Go on, Wexford.

♪ Gladdening all it glowed upon ♪ ♪