The 2013 Spirit of Ireland Tour: Ruins, Runes and Tunes

Four four years I have taken a small group of people to my Ireland, my ancestral homeland. Ireland is magical place; wonderful countryside, fantastic people who genuinely love Americans, phenomenal music, great food (really), incredible photo ops, wonderful sacred sites, and much, much more. This year's tour was unsurpassed in the level of enchantment. What makes these tours so special are the people who come on them, who participate in a chance to help, in our own humble way, heal the sacred lines of energy of the planetary grid structure, and make the world a better place. Most people who go to Ireland, take photos and drink Guinness. We do that too, but we give something back... through the healing intention of love and compassion, and this makes for a most magical enchanting tour. The follow photos are just a small selection of moments of our trip...and images can only begin to explain the essence.... the real magic is in the experience.... enjoy....

Spirit of Ireland Tour Orientation Meeting... Let the Tour Begin

We begin each tour with a short orientation, things to expect and some common rules to make the whole experience better for everyone (like the buddy system... so no one gets lost... we even have a secret buddy system)... Here we are in a park in Limerick..... and Stoney, our wonderful tour guide, highlights some important aspects of making a tour like this so successful. Thanks, Stoney.

The Round Tower of Glendalough

The Round Tower of Glendalough.... a very special place and one of many sacred sites in Ireland, about 90 mins outside of Dublin and a great place to begin our Spirit of Ireland Tour.

Our first sacred ceremony of the trip at Glendalough

I invited Adam (fiddle) and John (guitar) to play a few tunes after I closed with a poem by John O'Donohue and Paddy recited the Lord's Prayer in Gaelic (you can see the labyrinth off to the left hand side as well. The magic begins....on our trip.

Adam & Jon enchant the spirits at Glendalough

After playing a few songs to begin our sacred ceremony at the ancient monastery known as Glendalough (with two round towers), these guys just kept on playing..... Jon and Adam both live in Colorado, and are friends of mine. I invited them on this tour, as well as two other musicians (Dan and Ann) so we could have some great music at our beck and call. Boy ... were we spoiled.... Not only did Jon and Adam enchant the spirits, they enchanted us as well.

Welcome to the Clontarf Castle Hotel, Dublin Ireland

This was our home in Dublin for the first three nights... simply stunning...

Inside the Lobby of the Clontarff Castle Hotel

This is the original wall of the famous Clontarf Castle, some say over 1,000 years old. It's well preserved and makes for a great sight in the hotel lobby. The banners hanging here reveal a hsitory of the castle with various hallmarks along the 1,000 years of history. Very cool.