MICHAEL: Hello and 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 in County Kildare, just outside of Dublin.

Now, this place gives you every reason to enjoy it.

Whether it's on a luxury golf course, on a public greenway, or on the back of a horse, this place is just meant to be explored.

So let's enjoy the magnificent weather while it lasts.

♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael is made possible by: ♪ MICHAEL: The music, the folklore, and the hospitality.

It's all in Ireland.

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

♪ (duck quacking) MICHAEL: Beautiful Maynooth is a university town in County Kildare.

Ireland's only Roman Catholic seminary finds its home here alongside Maynooth University.

That seminary opened in 1795 to educate young men at home rather than sending them off to mainland Europe.

Around that same time, a canal was underway, extending from Dublin all the way to Longford, where it connects with the River Shannon, the main artery of Ireland.

This Royal Canal conveyed freight and passenger boats alike nearly 100 miles through 46 locks.

The thing is, almost as soon as it opened, it found itself competing with the new railways, and eventually it fell into disrepair.

That is until 2010, when the canal was reopened, this time almost exclusively for the enjoyment of those lucky enough to live alongside it.

Will we go for a stroll?

♪ (frogs croaking) ♪ (ducks quacking) So Ben, tell us about this canal here in Maynooth.

BEN: So, this is called the Royal Canal, and it's one of two major canals that exist in Ireland today, the other one being the Grand Canal.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

BEN: But an interesting thing is, is that the reason the Royal Canal was built, it was because of good old-fashioned one-upmanship, you might say.

MICHAEL: Ah.

BEN: Yeah, so what actually happened was, when the powers that be met in 1755 and they decided they wanted to build a canal, but they couldn't choose between one of two routes, and they ended up choosing the route that the other, Grand Canal, continues on today.

But what happened was that there was a member- a director of the Grand Canal Company, who was somewhat disgruntled because he wanted to go the other route, and he kicked up a bit of a fuss and eventually he got his way.

And so it was that, in 1790, the second canal, the Royal Canal that we have right here, was constructed.

So, there you go.

MICHAEL: And if you're from Maynooth, you'll call this the better of the canals, I'm assuming.

BEN: Of course you would, of course you would, yes, indeed.

♪ MICHAEL: In a university town like Maynooth, this new greenway is a very welcome improvement, encouraging hiking, kayaking, and biking.

How ever you travel, you'll soon be passing through rolling pastures, strolling locals, and charming waterfront villages on a flat and steady towpath, along which boats were once tugged.

It's the perfect way to become acquainted with the real country of Ireland, and you never have to go far before running into a cafe or the perfect picnic spot.

I know I'll be taking a few breaks myself after riding this thing.

I think it's about 30 years since I've been on a bicycle, and while they say that you never forget how to ride a bike, I'm not convinced.

I think I'm heading for the canal any minute.

Here goes.

♪ If your tastes happen to be a bit more exclusive, and you prefer your exercise on private golf courses rather than public greenways, mind you, I can't say I prefer my exercise anywhere, then you may want to head just south of Maynooth to a little spot in the country that's known throughout the world.

The Kildare Hotel and Golf Club, or K Club, is, truth be told, completely posh.

It was posh when it was built in 1831 by Hugh Barton, Irish escapee of the guillotine during the French Revolution and co-founder of the wine firm Barton & Guestier.

Side note, I've got a new dream job.

And it's been posh since it opened as the K Club in 1991.

The original design of the Straffan House is based on that of a French chateau.

♪ Whiskey master and hotel beverage manager John Ryan took me to my absolute favorite room in the K Club, their beautiful cocktail bar, where my friend and Ireland with Michael's resident food expert, Santina Kennedy, was already waiting.

She always seems to make it to the bar before me.

Santina, we're in County Kildare.

SANTINA: Here we are.

MICHAEL: We have to talk about one woman and one woman only.

SANTINA: Brigid.

MICHAEL: Saint Brigid.

SANTINA: Brigid of Kildare.

But before she was Saint Brigid, she was celebrated in Ireland as a goddess.

She was the goddess Brigid.

There's lots of traditions and folklore and legends around Brigid the saint and Brigid the goddess.

MICHAEL: So, we've got quite an array here on the table.

Tell me about it.

SANTINA: There is, first of all, the famous Saint Brigid's Cloak.

MICHAEL: Oh, yeah, the cloak.

SANTINA: So, Saint Brigid's Cloak, as we know, the King of Leinster didn't want to give Brigid land to build a convent.

Brigid asked him for some land, he sneered and said, "You can have as much land as your cloak will cover."

So she took her cloak, probably not like this Dubarry Irish tweed one, but a cloak similar to this, laid it out on the plains of the Curragh, and the cloak started to spread and spread and spread, and Brigid got lots of land for her convent.

So that's one of the legends.

The Brigid's cross, I'm sure you're familiar with.

MICHAEL: Made it in school.

SANTINA: Excellent news, I'm really glad to hear that.

The Brigid's cross, of course, we see and we think of Saint Brigid when we look at that, but actually, it's the cross, the pagan cross that represents the seasons.

So, Imbolc, which is the start of Irish spring, falls on the 1st of February, which is Saint Brigid's Day.

Imbolc, Bealtaine, which is Irish summer, Lúnasa, which is Irish autumn, and Sauin coming into Irish winter.

You said you remembered making them in school?

MICHAEL: I do.

SANTINA: Well, I brought some lovely, handpicked rushes for you from the bogs of Kildare, so off you go.

MICHAEL: What?

SANTINA: Let's see how you get on.

MICHAEL: From that?

SANTINA: Yes, from that.

It'll all come back to you.

MICHAEL: Okay.

♪ Just... All right, so I'm a little out of practice, but luckily there's more than one way to honor Brigid, and John has a craft that may be a little bit more my speed.

SANTINA: So, you know about the legend of Saint Brigid's Cloak.

The cloak cocktail that we've designed represents that, represents the trailblazing women of Ireland.

So trailblazing drinks producers like Anna and Orla from Valentia Island Vermouth.

So, it's a beautiful vermouth.

Mary O'Sullivan, who creates Beara Bitters, a type of orange bitters right here in Kildare.

And, of course, some lovely Fercullen Falls whiskey from neighboring Wicklow.

MICHAEL: You know I love it.

Well, John, I have to taste it.

Will you make it for me?

JOHN: Perfect.

We'll just use some lovely Fercullen Falls Irish whiskey.

So we're gonna use a good, good measure, and we're going to put in half of vermouth.

MICHAEL: Half a measure of vermouth.

JOHN: Half a measure of vermouth.

Like so.

There we go.

And we're going to use our lovely Kildare-made bitters.

We're going to use three dashes.

One, two, three.

And we're just going to stir it till it's nicely chilled down.

Just strain it into this.

Look at that lovely golden color.

MICHAEL: Beautiful.

It's like a cup of tea, really, isn't it?

SANTINA: Isn't it?

JOHN: There you go, and we're going to garnish it with some nice cherries.

Sláinte.

MICHAEL: Sláinte, John.

Sláinte, Santina.

Sláinte, Brigid, wherever you are.

♪ (glasses clink) ♪ Oh, that is so good.

To us Irish, nothing pairs better with a drink than an evening of music.

♪ Although the pub is probably the last place you'd catch virtuoso guitarist Shane Hennessy, more like the concert hall or, if you're in luck, your local Irish festival right at home in America.

♪ ♪ ♪ Shane Hennessy, I got to meet you about a year ago, a world away from here in County Kildare, back in Iowa at an Irish festival.

And I was struck at your masterful skill on this instrument.

How does a world- class guitarist pick up those skills?

SHANE: I suppose, for me, my story starts when I'm about four years old.

I remember I got a concertina off of Santa Claus at Christmastime, and I had sort of a laser focus at the time, all I wanted was Irish traditional music, so I played nothing but jigs and reels, slip jigs, hornpipes.

The more isolated the instrument, the better.

And, you know, solo concertina music, solo fiddle music.

And then when I was maybe about 12 or 13 years old, I remember I heard the music of James Taylor for the very first time.

And there was something about it, hearing, you know, "Fire and Rain" and "Something in the Way She Moves," all those classic songs, something about the sound of his guitar playing really captivated me.

I remember I turned around to my father, because he's also a musician, I said, "Dad, I want you to teach me how to do that."

♪ ♪ MICHAEL: So what do you think is the difference then between traditional Irish music and jazz or country or American music?

SHANE: I think that one of the most unique features of Irish music, and I don't know too many other styles of music that have this, is that you can't separate the melody and the rhythm in Irish and Celtic music, because if you take one away, the other disappears.

MICHAEL: Right.

SHANE: And I think that that understanding, having that understanding from a young age really helps you to kind of make your musical fundamentals very strong.

So I had a lot of melody and I had a lot of rhythm coming into guitar playing, and then finding the guitar and realizing that I can play a full chord and I can change the quality of the chord, that was just like, you know, for me, it was like seeing the world in black and white, and all of a sudden all the color came into the world when I realized I could layer all the notes on top of each other.

♪ ♪ MICHAEL: A private concert and a cocktail I can do, but the thing that K Club does best is more than a little outside of my comfort zone.

With two golf courses onsite, one designed by the legendary Arnold Palmer himself, apparently this is the place to come for 18 holes.

They even hosted the Ryder Cup here, whatever that is.

It sounds like a big deal.

Gary, I think you know already that I know nothing about golf, right?

But from America, looking over at this great golfing country, the K Club shines as probably the coolest of courses.

How does it feel to be the pro player here?

GARY: It feels very cool.

I think probably luckiness and gratitude, and I've been here now for nearly five years.

MICHAEL: Oh, right.

GARY: Every day you drive in through the gates, you feel like you're coming somewhere different, so.

MICHAEL: So tell us, how good are your teaching skills?

GARY: They're normally very good, but I believe the challenge is ridiculous today.

But I think they're pretty good.

MICHAEL: You may be a golf teacher, but I think, in this case, you need to be a magician to make me a golfer.

So, will we give it a shot?

GARY: We will.

MICHAEL: Good luck with that.

GARY: Thank you.

MICHAEL: So, Gary, are you sure that it's the tradition that the student carries the bags?

GARY: Yeah, but if you were doing this on the PGA Tour, Ted Scott's getting four hundred grand a week for doing this, so what are we giving out?

Why don't you have a go?

MICHAEL: No, you'll go first.

GARY: I'll go first.

Okay.

So a little Irish jig in.

Just step in, one, two.

(club whacking) Give that a go.

MICHAEL: All right.

(club whacking) Oh.

(mumbles) (Gary laughs) (Michael screams) Golf is not for me.

♪ (birds chirping) All right, so the K Club was pretty much the height of luxury.

I think I'm ready to relax somewhere a little more down to earth.

Oh, dear God, they've lined up the staff for my arrival.

Could it be Ballyfin Demesne is even posher?

This is so Downton Abbey.

Well, someone has to suffer to make great TV, right?

Set at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains and nestled in ancient woods is the resplendent Ballyfin Demesne, a five-star country house that, following restoration, feels as much like a living museum as a luxury hotel.

A stay here promises to be something truly special, and the activities on the estate's 614 acres of private park are befitting its history and status.

And apparently I've a packed afternoon ahead of me to experience as much of it as I can.

First up, it's- (gun bangs) shooting a gun.

(gun bangs) My favorite.

This should be no problem for me, someone who's always at the shooting range.

I just hope they've got a great instructor.

Glenn, you're the guy on this estate who takes guests on very special experiences, and I believe that you want to give me one of those special experiences.

What are we going to learn to do today?

GLENN: We're going to do a bit of clay pigeon shooting, Michael.

I believe you've never done it before.

MICHAEL: I'm not exactly what you call a gunman.

In fact, I've never even held a gun.

GLENN: Yeah.

MICHAEL: So, where do we begin?

GLENN: Well, we're gonna start off with the basics, so I'm gonna show you how to hold the gun.

So, you're gonna be shooting this, a 20-bore Beretta.

Just gonna open that up.

The way we're gonna be holding the gun, the stock of the gun, which is this part here, is going into the pocket of your shoulder.

See the way it's in line with the top of my shoulder here?

MICHAEL: Yeah.

GLENN: Okay.

When you turn this way, most of your weight's gonna be on your front foot.

See the way the stock goes, right up along your cheek?

Up nice and high.

Left eye closed, right eye open, rib, pin to your target.

That gun is facing forward at all times, all right?

Right, do you want to give this a go?

MICHAEL: I don't, but I'm going to do it anyway.

GLENN: (laughs) Man, fair play to you.

MICHAEL: Okay, so the instructor is actually pretty great.

If he can make a clay pigeon marksman out of me, there's hope for, well, just about anybody.

The only real issue is that clay pigeons taste awful, even in soup.

GLENN: Pull.

Shoot.

(gun bangs) MICHAEL: Yeah, I feel like somebody hit me in the head.

(gun bangs) GLENN: Pull.

MICHAEL: Okay, in editing, make it like I shot the clays, okay?

What's next?

Oh, of course.

A ride on horseback around this stunning estate in full bloom.

Now, Pauline, you should know that it's about 40 years since I've been on a horse.

PAULINE: 40 years.

Well, that's okay.

MICHAEL: Look, with the helmet, I have the boots, I'm ready to ride the horse.

PAULINE: Yes.

All you need is the horse.

MICHAEL: It's the off season here at Ballyfin, which means we have the place mostly to ourselves.

♪ The man who can tell Ballyfin's every story is who I'm off to see next.

And from his job description, it seems like he does, or oversees just about everything that happens on the estate.

So, Lionel, what is your exact title for this great estate?

LIONEL: Yeah, I'm head butler on the house here, and I'm also head coachman, so I do the horses outside.

MICHAEL: I'd love to go way back, long before this remarkable restoration, to the time and the year that this was built in the first place.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?

LIONEL: I can, yeah.

In a nutshell, I suppose, really, the first house was built in the 1650s on this very site.

And this house then came in the 1820s as a much larger building, much more impressive building, very much to climb in society and become one of the iconic houses of the country.

And that's what this family wanted, and that's what their wealth allowed, as well.

MICHAEL: Tell me a bit more about the family.

Was it one person who decided to build it?

LIONEL: Well, a man and his wife, Charles and Caroline Coote.

Charles Coote had received a fortune of land and money at only 10 years of age.

He became the landlord of the area and a band of land that stretched halfway across Ireland or more.

So land rent off this area gave these people extraordinary wealth, and that's what this house needed to depict really, was the family wealth, and shine above others, you know?

So that's why you have these fantastic rooms, scagliola columns, parquetry floors by the Queen's cabinet makers, you know?

♪ MICHAEL: Now, they may not have parquetry floors made by the Queen's cabinet maker, but one of Ireland's leading musical families, the Fahys, have invited me into their lovely home, and they've got something a lot more special to me, music.

♪ ♪ ♪ So, in listening to your tunes, you've got all these, like, you've got a hundred instruments on the stage, but ultimately, it's all about the tunes.

You know, where do you get the tunes from, and how do you know how to put them all together?

MAIRIN: Well, I suppose a lot of the tunes are tunes that we have learned for many, many years when we were growing up in Ballinakill, where my mum, our mum, taught us a lot of the tunes.

And I suppose we have given them different arrangements and maybe another extra life or whatever.

And then, of course, when you are playing for dancers also, you have to pick tunes that may be suitable for them and rhythmically, as well.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ MICHAEL: So, as kids, I'm trying to figure out how this all happened in one house.

So, did your mom kind of, did she learn tunes from somebody else, or how did that all work?

MAIRIN: Well, it all went back to our grandfather, who was in the Ballinakill Céile Band, which are one of the first céile bands to record on 2RN, which was the Irish radio station.

And then they traveled over to England, and they did a lot of touring.

And unfortunately, I think, when the Second World War broke out, it kind of stopped the touring for them.

MICHAEL: Right.

MAIRIN: And then, my grandfather had daughters, and Aggie Whyte was a very famous fiddle player.

And my mum, our mum, Bridie, as well, was a very well- known fiddler, so they passed on the tradition to us, really.

♪ ♪ MICHAEL: Thanks for joining me on my travels around Kildare.

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

But for now, cheers.

Sláinte.

ANNOUNCER: Want to continue your travels to Ireland?

Your choice of the Ireland with Michael DVD Seasons one and two or Seasons three and four with bonus concert footage is available for $30.

Ireland with Michael: A Musical Journey CD with songs from Michael and his guest artists, is available for $20.

The Ireland with Michael Companion travel book, featuring places to visit as seen in all seasons, is also available for $30.

This offer is made by Wexford House.

Shipping and handling is not included.

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

ANNOUNCER: Ireland with Michael was made possible by: ♪ MICHAEL: The music, the folklore, and the hospitality.

It's all in Ireland.

♪ ANNOUNCER: CIE Tours, sharing the magic of Ireland for 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: Okay, put your hands up in the air!

Come on, let's get a-wavin'!

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

♪ Ever true ♪ ♪ Like the sun, your smile has shone ♪ Go on, Wexford!

♪ Gladdening all it glowed upon ♪ ♪