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.

Today, we're traveling the length and breadth of Ireland from my hometown of Wexford in the ancient East, across through the Dingle Peninsula and up the Wild Atlantic Way to the distant frontiers of the Northwest.

Along the way, I'll be meeting friends and sampling some of the culture and sights that the Emerald Isle has to offer.

♪ ♪ ♪ 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 are thinking about Ireland, Aer Lingus is ready when you are, to take you home.

♪ ♪ MICHAEL: If you only got a short time in Ireland and want to see the highlights, well, here's the episode for you.

Today, we're on a mad dash across the country to see it all.

You've probably flown into Dublin, so make your way 90 minutes south to my hometown of Wexford.

What better place to stay than the Ferrycarrig Hotel overlooking the River Slaney.

TONY: And I get this lovely support from local suppliers.

MICHAEL: My cousin Tony Carty is the head chef there, and he'd gladly cook up a full Irish for you on your first morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, my cousin, Tony Carty.

(audience applauding) But Tony is not only a chef, he just so happens to be a terrific crooner as well.

After all, this is Wexford, singers abound.

Tony joined me at the Opera House for my Christmas show last year.

And it's lovely to have you here.

TONY: Thank you very much.

A beautiful band and beautiful singers.

Here we go.

♪ Snowbound ♪ ♪ A magic Christmas in the air ♪ ♪ With you there's wonder simply everywhere ♪ ♪ Lying here in your arms ♪ ♪ All calm, all bright ♪ ♪ A winter white ♪ ♪ Outside the snow ♪ ♪ Inside your glow ♪ ♪ Snowbound ♪ ♪ A magic Christmas in the air ♪ ♪ With you there's wonder simply everywhere ♪ ♪ Lyin' here in your arms ♪ ♪ Snowbound ♪ ♪ Lyin' here in your arms ♪ ♪ Snowbound ♪ ♪ Just here in your arms ♪ ♪ Snowbound ♪ (audience applauding) MICHAEL: I love you, Tony.

If you're already swooning over Tony's crooning, just wait until you see what he can do in the kitchen.

So, Tony, I can't think of anywhere more gorgeous to learn about great local foods.

Tell us, what have you got here today.

TONY: Okay, well, we've got some Rosslare crab that we're gonna make a salad with, and we're gonna serve with some Guinness bread, some homemade Guinness bread.

MICHAEL: Oh, gorgeous.

TONY: So we're gonna use some whole meal flour.

MICHAEL: All right.

TONY: So we have 12 ounces of whole meal flour, and our plain flour which is three ounces, and we have some porridge-- MICHAEL: Oatmeal for Americans.

TONY: Oatmeal, okay.

A teaspoon of bread soda, a pinch of salt, we have two ounces of brown sugar.

We have an ounce of butter.

We have a cup and a half of milk.

MICHAEL: Okay.

TONY: All right, and we're just gonna mix all these pieces together.

We add a little bit of Guinness.

So we don't need this much, you can have it-- MICHAEL: I can have the rest.

TONY: You can have the rest.

And we're gonna place it into a greased bread tin.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

TONY: And then we're gonna put it into our oven.

MICHAEL: That's 320 for 45 minutes, Tony.

TONY: Surprise, surprise!

Here's what we prepared earlier.

MICHAEL: That looks gorgeous.

TONY: So we're just gonna turn that out.

Beautiful.

MICHAEL: Looks so hearty.

TONY: Absolutely.

Perfect.

I'm gonna place it up here on the side.

So, there you go, it's just some Rosslare crab meat salad with some local lettuces and pea shoots and a homemade Guinness bread.

MICHAEL: The quintessential Irish dish.

TONY: It is a beautiful light summer lunch.

♪ MICHAEL: Now, we'd love to stay and chat, but we're on the move today, headed west to the little village of Kilmeaden.

(bee buzzing) These are the absolutely splendid Gardens of Mount Congreve.

Ireland is dotted throughout, with these flourishing green spaces, where trees and flowers and shrubbery are carefully maintained for the enjoyment of all.

It's thanks to our mild climate and abundant rainfall that most any growing things can take root in our rich soil.

Often, the best evidence for this are in these sprawling gardens, once the estates of the landed, now become a place for all to enjoy.

♪ The violets were scenting the woods, Maggie ♪ While we're in Waterford, let's meet up with one of these counties' most talented natives, Glenn Murphy, who you may have seen performing his viral Adele medley on The Ellen Show.

♪ When I first said I loved only you, Maggie ♪ He's a beautiful singer and I couldn't wait to duet with him.

Although we went for something a little less contemporary than Adele, though no less heartbreaking.

♪ The chestnut blooms ♪ ♪ Gleaned through the glades, Maggie ♪ ♪ A robin sang aloud from the tree ♪ ♪ When I first said I loved only you, Maggie ♪ ♪ And you said you loved only me ♪ ♪ A golden row of daffodils shone, Maggie ♪ ♪ And danced with the leaves on the lea ♪ ♪ When I first said I loved only you, Maggie ♪ ♪ And you said you loved only me ♪ ♪ Our dreams they have never come true, Maggie ♪ ♪ Our hopes they never meant to be ♪ ♪ When I first said I loved only you, Maggie ♪ ♪ And you said you loved only me ♪ ♪ A county north in Tipperary, lying on both banks of the River Suir, is the town of Carrick-on-Suir.

Never a more charming place, and right in the middle of the town is a rather unusual Tudor manor house, and the reason we've made the trek.

This is Ormonde Castle, ancestral home of the Butler family, whose name was once a title, Chief Butler of Ireland.

A position of special fealty to the Crown, attending to the monarchy whenever they came to visit.

The castle has stood since before the Butlers took it over in 1315.

Thomas Butler, better known as Black Tom, the 10th Earl of Ormonde, was a favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, his cousin through Anne Boleyn.

It was Tom who brought Elizabethan architecture to Ireland, adding the Tudor manor house to the front of his castle.

♪ We've reached the other coast of the country and made it to the City of Galway, European capital of culture in 2020, and one of Ireland's most buzzing cities.

Known for its first rate buskers, ♪ inventive modern theater, and a lively street scene, one group comes to mind that brings these all together on an epic scale, Macnas.

♪ We're here at the center of a tradition that represents the very spirit of Galway.

♪ Macnas are larger-than- life puppet creations that began on the city streets in fantastic public spectacles, parading in the heart of Galway.

Macnas means frolics in Gaelic, and the pioneering artistry of this company has brought them all around the world.

♪ I got the chance to talk to artistic director, Noeline Kavanagh, about the magic of Macnas.

(chuckling) Noeline.

NOELINE: (chuckling) Yes.

MICHAEL: I feel the spirit of Macnas in this room, and I'm so delighted to meet the artistic director.

Can you tell me about your life here in the world of Macnas?

NOELINE: Wow, I can.

Well, I suppose, em, this company has a kind of a bua, a kind of an energy all of her own really, and I suppose I grew up with Macnas.

So I'm from Galway, so I was really lucky to experience and grow up around this outstanding, kind of fantastical, amazing, wild beast of a company.

So I first encountered Macnas and became part of the kind of company DNA when I was 17, and, em, kind of took part in some of the street processions.

And really, from that point, I got a little bit hooked.

And really, really got embedded in this kind of whole sensibility around art and heart in civic spaces, and that whole kind of sense of poetic disruption in a kind of collective environment.

MICHAEL: What makes Macnas, Galway?

NOELINE: Janey now, Michael-- MICHAEL: It's hard to define, right?

NOELINE: It is, I'll tell you what it is.

I think what makes Macnas, Galway is this kind of mad combination of energy, of spirit and of place.

I also think a little bit around being an outsider or being slightly on the edge, like Galway geographically is kind of at the edge of the Atlantic.

♪ MICHAEL: When people think of Ireland, what may come to mind for many is the image of Innisfree.

Whether that be WB Yeats' Lake Isle where, peace comes dropping slow, and noon's a purple glow, or the postcard perfect technicolor vision of a rural Irish village in 1952's The Quiet Man.

While Innisfree itself remains a dream of the silver screen, Cong, the village where it was shot, right on the border between counties, Mayo and Galway, is very real and is pretty as ever.

When Hollywood came to Ireland, there was nowhere else for the stars to stay but Ashford Castle.

This luxe hotel was an ancestral home of the Burkes, and seized in fierce battle by the English official, Sir Richard Bingham.

The Guinness family bought the estate in 1852, building two Victorian extensions onto the 700-year- old structure.

By the 1930s, it was a grand hotel in the old style, and it's remained one of Ireland's ritziest ever since.

Much of the shooting of The Quiet Man took place on the grounds here, and I can't say I blame them for wanting to work close by to this elegance.

♪ The people at Ashford know how to take care of you, and I was given the grand tour by some of their outstanding team.

Tell me a little bit about your role in the castle.

MAN: So I'm the restaurant and wine program manager.

I started here in the 1st of May, 1987.

MICHAEL: A while ago.

MAN: A while, a little while, a little while.

So we're now in our Hall of Fame, our memorabilia room.

MICHAEL: Yes.

MAN: And luckily I've met most of the people here.

And it's just a little history of who stayed here, and why they keep coming back.

MICHAEL: Dignitaries and stars from all over the world I guess.

MAN: Dignitaries, politicians.

This is probably our most famous stars-- MICHAEL: Ah, yes.

MAN: Maureen O'Hara, John Wayne from The Quiet Man, which was made in 1951.

This was Maureen's last time here.

She was 97, and I said to her, "You look amazing."

And she said, "Robert, I want to live to 103."

And I said, "Why?"

And she said, "My mother-in-law lived to 103.

"I want to beat the record."

And she was... "What was her..." I said, "What was her secret?

And she said, "Whiskey in her porridge every morning."

(Michael chuckling) So we've always served whiskey with porridge at breakfast, you know.

MICHAEL: Well, that's a new bad habit-- MAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MICHAEL: For me too then.

MAN: This is probably our most famous guest that nobody ever has met or ever known, Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird.

(Michael laughing) So I started here in the 1st of May '87, and he was staying here in June, and I was serving him and he said, "You probably know me," and I said, "I've never met you before in my life."

And he said, "I'm Big Bird from Sesame Street."

And I said, "Yeah, right."

And I walked away, and as soon as I turned my back, he talked, and I went, "Oh, my God."

And he came that Christmas, and he's come every Christmas since, and he passed away two years ago.

MICHAEL: I remember.

MAN: And he was the most amazing guest and a phenomenal artist.

And every year, he used to bring these pictures that he would draw just for Ashford for Christmas, and he would sign them to all the guests, all right?

So I have 34 of these pictures at home framed in my house in the hall, and when I put them up, my son said to me, "Are we just gonna leave them up for Christmas?"

And I said, "No, we'll leave them up."

So they're in my hall, I have 34 pictures all signed from-- MICHAEL: By Big Bird.

MAN: From Big Bird, yeah, yeah.

So we're going upstairs now-- MICHAEL: Sure.

MAN: To the cinema, and this is a great place to start, Pierce Brosnan, James Bond.

He first came here in the '80s, '85, shooting an episode of Remington Steele.

And then he came back to get married here in 2004.

But the day of the wedding, his PA came up to me and she came running into the restaurant, "Can anybody tie a bow tie?"

And I said, "I wear one every day."

"Can you come with me?"

and she started to walk.

Then she started to run, I said, "You want me to run?"

So we ran down to the marquee down by the lake, and here's Pierce standing behind a bush with the bow tie hanging, and he said to me, I looked at him and I said, "Don't tell me 007 can't tie his own bow tie?"

He said, "I've never done it.

"Someone's always done it for me."

So I tied the bow tie, and he gave me his tie, and I said, "I'll leave this in your room."

And he said, "No, that's for you."

I said, "I can't take your tie you got married in."

And he said Turnbull & Asser, who do all the clothing for James Bond, gave him 50 ties that day.

So every so many photograph, they switched out the ties.

So he said, "That's for you, that's a memento for you."

So I have Pierce Brosnan's tie, 007's tie at the house.

MICHAEL: If stargazing inspires you to watch some of their work, well, Ashford Castle can take care of that as well.

Paula Carroll who's hosted the glitterati here for many years explains.

PAULA: Look for the pièce de résistance.

MICHAEL: Oh.

PAULA: Welcome, welcome, welcome, Michael.

MICHAEL: What a way to watch a movie.

PAULA: What an extraordinary way to watch a movie.

This is unbelievable.

We were the first hotel in this country to have an indoor cinema.

Mind you, we were the first hotel in the country to have a lot of things.

The most important thing that happened to this extraordinary place that we're in today is in 2013, when the Tollman family of Red Carnation Hotel decided to purchase this castle.

There was over $100 million spent restoring this castle to its former glory.

However, even in its former glory, we did not have what we now have here, which is our magnificent 32-seater cinema, that allows us to show on a daily basis a series of movies for our guests, but most importantly, to show The Quiet Man, which is the probably the most requested one.

♪ MICHAEL: As it's plain to see, Ashford is top of the line when it comes to accommodations.

But the reason to come to Ireland, besides the beauty, the food, and the Guinness is our culture and traditions.

♪ And one such tradition is our respect for the otherworldly.

♪ On a journey like today's, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled while passing the endless fields of Ireland.

Do so, and you'll start to notice lone trees, hawthorn or ash, standing and circled by large stones offering protection.

♪ The landowners whose fields and pasture are cultivated all around these trees would never dare disrupt them for these are the homes of the Sídh, ♪ the wee folk of Ireland, known also as the faery.

JOE: Rowan tree, branches it out over your door, can protect you from the faeries.

MICHAEL: Renowned storyteller, Joe Brennan, born in Wexford and living in Donegal, the far Northwest of the country, preserves our fairy stories and passes them on freely, as we've been doing for perhaps thousands of years.

I gladly let him tell us.

Joe, all of these fairy stories and leprechaun stories have a very definite origin.

They come from one place and one myth and one legend.

Do you want to tell us a bit more about that?

JOE: Yeah, so the origin of the fairies goes back to the Tuatha Dé Danann, which were like the people of Danu, who was a goddess, and basically what happened was, there was an invasion of the Milesians and they drove Tuatha Dé Danann out.

But they didn't want to leave the country, so they agreed to go underground.

Twice a year, they can come back into our world freely and move about, which is Saint John's Eve as it's called now in the summer, Midsummer, and also Halloween.

MICHAEL: 'Cause people don't know that actually Halloween comes from here.

JOE: Yeah, Halloween comes from here, and it was, ah, it was a night when you kept out of the way, because the fairies were moving around and they were usually up to no good.

And the whole thing of dressing up was to kind of disguise yourself 'cause they were looking for people to take away, and if they had their eye on you now, Michael you would have been a prime target.

Good singer, fine looking lad.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

JOE: They would have been looking for him, "Where is he, where is he?"

And you would have had some sort of disguise, so they wouldn't know you and they'd pass you by.

♪ MICHAEL: Of course, of all our traditions, it's our music that I love the best.

So, since we'll be having to head back across the country to catch our flights anyways, why don't we stop off back at Wexford, the place where I first fell in love with singing.

♪ There's a young local singer with whom I share a love of both traditional music and musical theater, and I know just the perfect setting for our conversation and a wonderful final stop on our mad dash too.

There's something for everyone at Wells House, an impressive Victorian Gothic manor and museum designed by Daniel Robertson, who also built the Powerscourt Estate up in County Wicklow and the Disneyesque Johnstown Castle found here in County Wexford.

Now, Wells House isn't just for history buffs or architecture enthusiasts.

Far from it.

There's 450 acres of woodlands to get lost in around here.

♪ But let's not forget why we're here.

I can't wait to chat with supremely talented trad musician and singer, my young friend, Iona Ritchie.

Iona, the first time that I met you, you were 14 years old and you were auditioning for a show, a musical that I was producing.

Here you are and you're all grown up and you're singing traditional music.

IONA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: What's it like to sing musicals one day and traditional music the next day?

IONA: It's actually very similar because both musical theater and traditional singing, they're always telling a story, so you can kind of use what you've learned from one to help with the other.

I think the main difference is just traditional singing, you don't have the luxury of an orchestra behind you helping you, you're completely unaccompanied.

♪ Two brothers bold called Pat and Mick ♪ ♪ They lived near Derrylin ♪ ♪ They had a darling springing cow ♪ ♪ That they called Mary Jane ♪ ♪ But hay was scarce and cash was scarce ♪ ♪ And both their suits threadbare ♪ ♪ So Mary Jane, she had to go to Ballyconnell fair ♪ MICHAEL: Does learning a skill like traditional singing take a long time?

Iona: I think since, it really, it's quite funny actually.

When we wrapped the musical, that's really when I started traditional singing, and I think it's taken until now for really me to become fully confident in, you know, the ornamentation and the dynamics and all the little tweaks that go into traditional singing.

♪ They reached the Green ♪ ♪ At half past eight approaching daylight ♪ ♪ The fog had lifted all at once ♪ ♪ The drovers hove in sight ♪ ♪ Says Pat to Mick, "Where's Mary Jane" ♪ ♪ "I can't see her nowhere" ♪ ♪ By the holy Lord ♪ ♪ It was me you drove to Ballyconnell fair ♪ MICHAEL: Do you come from a family that loves traditional music?

Or is this something that you just picked up?

IONA: I'm actually the black sheep of my family, none of my family did music, (Michael chuckling) let alone traditional music.

So I'm kinda the odd one out (chuckles).

♪ Now, with both men dead, God rest their souls ♪ ♪ But still the story's told ♪ ♪ Around the fires of Derrylin ♪ ♪ Enjoyed by young and old ♪ ♪ And children ask when going to bed ♪ ♪ And dashing up the stairs ♪ ♪ "Was it Pat drove Mick ♪ ♪ "Or Mick drove Pat to Ballyconnell fair" ♪ MICHAEL: Thanks for joining me on my travels around Ireland.

I'm Michael Londra, and I hope to see you next time on Ireland with Michael.

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 ♪ ♪