County Offaly's most famous feature is probably the Tullamore Dew whiskey distillery. I went on a wee weekend trip a few years ago with my trusted companion Eddie the Beagle who wrote a little entry on his blog about the trip, which you can see on this link.
From Tullamore hails guitar and bouzouki player Dónal Lunny, who in his long distinguished career has played with Planxty, the Bothy Band and most recently Usher's Island. He only recorded 3 albums under his own name, but collaborating with a number of different musicians. This set of tunes, The Glentown Medley is from his 1998 album Coolfin:
Moving on to County Westmeath we meet button accordionist Paul Brock from Athlone right in the geographical centre of Ireland. Here's a set of tunes from his 2010 album Mo Chardín, The Hut in the Bog / Rolling in the Ryegrass / Monasteraden Fancy:
Here's a song called Town of Athlone , which actually talks about an ambush in Co. Kilkenny, performed by Karan Casey from Cork off the Album Rough Guide to Irish Music:
Now County Longford seems to be something of a heartland for Irish country music, and I really... REALLY hate Irish country music. And since I can't find anything else decent from this county, I shall reluctantly skip over it. If anyone out there can find something decent, let me know and I will add it at a later point. I can't even find any nice songs about County Longford.
Multi-instrumentalist John Carty was born in London, but has since moved to Boyle, County Roscommon. He was taught banjo, fiddle and flute by his father and passed his skills on to his daughter Maggie. Here they are playing a set of tunes called The Turn / Carrigkerry / Con Cassidy's from their 2016 album Settle Out of Court:
That's concludes our whistlestop tour through the Irish Midlands. As usual you can follow my virtual journey on this link. Next stop is Galway.
