a farmleigh day out

The wet and windy day that it was we headed en famille to one of our regular haunts. Farmleigh is a great auld shop for bits and pieces of entertainment to occupy and engage your children if you have any, if you don't you could do worse than to borrow some.

Our first stop was in to see Eddie Lenihan, a seanchai that I remember from his 'Ten Minute Tales' on RTE back in the 1980's. I was enthralled looking at this beardy bloke regaling viewers with tales of the mighty Fionn MacCumhaill. These were the days before specialised tv channels and your intake of childrens television was squeezed between the weekday hours of 4pm to 6pm. It was all Grange Hill and Cheggers Plays Pop on BBC, while here in RTE land it was Bosco and Anything Goes. Anyhow, Eddie Lenihan was doing some storytelling sessions up in Farmleigh at the weekend so I thought it would be only good manners to check him out. As it turns out it was all over the kids heads but I was loving it. He'd brought along some copies of his books for sale, including his new one 'Irish Tales of Mystery and Magic'. What better than to purchase a copy and get it signed by the man himself? He obliged on the signing and even gave me a discount on the cover price. It was only then that I realised that the illustrations were done by none other than Alan Clarke. I'd come across Mr Clarke only a couple of weeks ago in this post. He's done an amazing job on the illustrations for the book. I'd recommend the book for anyone (young or old) who's into a few tales about Fionn MacCumhall.

Our second stop in Farmleigh was to see a puppet show by Conor Lambert, son of the infamous Eugene Lambert, another stalwart of 1980's, Irish, childrens broadcasting. Funnily enough I'd only paid a visit a fortnight ago to the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown here in Dublin. I hadn't been in the place since I was about seven years old. It was like a time warp back to a much more innocent time in my life. I was treated to their version of 'The 3 Little Pigs' and another story which I think was called 'The Man who thought he knew everything'. It was brilliant. Anyhow, Conor and Miriam Lambert, the son and daughter of the famous Eugene, will be plying their trade in Farmleigh for the next couple of weekends. You could do worse than to check them out. Also,if you get the chance to catch the storyteller Niall de Burca, then seize it. He's bleedin' deadly.

I'm waiting on a few seven inches in the post. I've resorted to internet purchases as I can't find much to my liking in the shops at present. Amongst those I'm waiting on are 'In Berlin' by Electrelane, an old Timmy McNealy cover of 'What's goin' on' and a six-pack of seven inches from The Congos. I can't wait for the postman to drop in the slip that says I have to collect the package from Phibsboro. Things have got that bad!