We went on to Ennis, which is known as Ireland's Information Technology Town. In a unique government experiment, all of the residents of Ennis within a five-mile radius of the town were given free or subsidized computer equipment and DSL online access, in the mid-1990s.
At one of the local national schools in Ennis, we filmed Siobhan Peoples (daughter of celebrated Irish fiddler, Tommy Peoples) while she taught her fiddle class, as part of the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann music program. Josephine Marsh, the celebrated accordion player, met us there after Siobhan's class and together they led us up to the Drumore Nature Reserve, several miles out of Ennis.
The afternoon sun was warm as it sparkled on the water and illuminated the autumn leaves. Water birds sang, glided and swooped all around us. An old raised cement walkway lined with overarching sapling trees bridged the wide, deep lake to castle ruins on the other side. I nearly fainted to see Siobhan and Josephine perched precariously on the edge of the walkway, playing their precious instruments, with feet dangling and dancing over the dark water. Meanwhile, Joe, one buttock suspended over the water and the other providing ballast on terra firma, leaned his camera out to film them from an impossible angle. A bit later and less afraid, I sat on the ledge myself and interviewed them separately. It was a magical setting and they were beautiful and full of wonderful wisdom and music. When we had finished, the sun was about to set behind the trees, so we stayed on to capture the magnificent sunset on film.
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