It was seven years ago that it happened.
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We were travelling around Ireland in April 2010.  This was our first overseas trip since retirement, so there were no time limits for our return – fortunately!

We were checking into a hotel in Killarney when we first heard the news, but were not too worried initially.  After all, we still had a few days on our schedule.  We were not due in Dublin until 18 April.  Surely there would be no problems for our journey home on 19 April.

We spent some time exploring Killarney – a lovely Irish town, then on to Kinsale in County Cork.  For anyone who has not been there, it is a picture postcard fishing village in the south coast.  Then onto Waterford, and back to Dublin.

It was now 18 April.  After returning our hire car, we took a taxi to our hotel.  Here we learnt the severity of the problem – four days later, and if anything, things were worse.

Our next step was to send an email to the Travel Agent back home as the time zone difference meant a telephone call was difficult.  No response!  But there was an email from the airlines, and all our flights had been cancelled.  Oops!  So, talk with the hotel, and extend our booking for three days – they were very obliging, even including breakfast for the next three days at no extra cost.  And now a phone call to the travel agent back home.  Another, although small, hiccup.  Our travel agent had left the company, but another agent took on our case.  We had new flight bookings – now for three days later than planned.

Now it was a matter of just waiting.  We spent time touring the Dublin area – a half day bus tour to the north of Dublin; a half day bus tour to the south of Dublin; visiting some small museums and getting lost around Dublin.  In between, we were watching the television SKY News for the latest updates on the situation.  Would our new flight also be cancelled?

Have you worked out the nature of the event?  I would not to try to pronounce the name, but it was the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, 14-20 April 2010.  Flights all over Europe, and some further afield were all grounded, and we were stuck!

There were a couple of positives from the experience.  The hotel was very accommodating – after all they were impacted widely as well – few new bookings.  We saw more of Dublin than we would have seen otherwise.  And we were flying Business Class, and so the airlines looked after us.  We were on one of the first flights out of Dublin to Manchester, and then home to Melbourne.
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This subject was given to us on 24 April (2017), seven years to the day since we arrived home after our delayed flights!  My Facebook comment for the day was “has escaped Europe and is now at home”.


Joy Shirley
May 2017

What an evening – 29 March 1998

We were “folkies” like many of our generation.  Always enjoying groups like Peter Paul and Mary, The Seekers, and many singers of ballads and protest songs of the era.
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From 1992, the National Folk Festival held in Canberra over Easter every year.  It had for many years been held in different states around Australia, but like many such big events, it became obvious that every year, a new team of people were learning from scratch how to organise the event.  That was why in 1992, it was decided to centralise the event in one location, with an ongoing team to undertake the organisation and administration. 

Living in Canberra at the time, and seeing a couple of our favourite current performers, we had to give the Festival a go that first year.  We bought a couple of day tickets so that we could attend concerts by these favourites.  We were hooked.  This was the last time we bought only day tickets – in subsequent years we bought full season tickets.  There were so many venues and concerts.  There were new performers to discover, and styles of music to explore.  There were food stalls, craft stalls, street performers.  There were featured artists from around Australia and overseas.  Yes, we were hooked.  For a few years, we were among the volunteers who helped run the event, and my husband also performed in the band that provided the music for the Saturday night Irish Ceili dance.

It was here that we discovered Roy Bailey, from the UK.  He has been described as:
"one of folk music's finest performers and one of the world's best carriers of the people's message."
  And
"...the greatest socialist folksinger of his generation" - Tony Benn (a former Labour MP in the UK.)

We made sure that we attended all his concerts.  Sometimes we heard some of his songs more than once, but this did not happen often.  He was not a song writer, but chose amazing songs to sing, gave great information about the songs and his performances were inspiring.  Then at a concert in 1997, he announced that it had been confirmed that he would be performing in the Royal Albert Hall in London in March 1998.  We had been talking about a UK holiday to visit the places of my husband’s childhood.  The timing for the trip had been decided!  We booked our tickets for the concert as soon as bookings opened – amongst the first bookings made we were told.

Yes, we were there on 29 March 1998 at Roy Bailey’s concert in the Royal Albert Hall.  He knew we would be there, and made a point of telling the audience. 

Yes, we were there!

I was not sure that there were any significant events where “I was there”.  But what is significant to some is not necessary significant to others.  These are not necessarily events that caused news reports.  Then I remembered a few events that were significant, or at least memorable, to me.

So, “I was there” too.

It was sitting in the audience at BPACC on Saturday night for the Roy Orbison Reborn show that I re-lived in part a concert I attended in 1964.  It was Festival Hall in Melbourne – where all the big concerts were held at that time.  I attended the Roy Orbison Concert in January, with my sister and her boyfriend of the time.  The other artists were The Beach Boys, The Surfaries (cannot really remember them), Paul and Paula and The Joy Boys.  This was my first “grown up” concert.

There was another Festival Hall concert I remember from those years – Peter, Paul & Mary.  In thinking about the concert, I do not remember any supporting act – maybe there was, but this was in my early days of a folk fan, so nothing else stands out – and it was a long time ago.

Other live music performances followed, but none were at Festival Hall.  There was Joan Baez, more Peter, Paul & Mary, Eric Bogle and so on.  Other concerts followed in smaller venues.

​But as far as Festival Hall was concerned, I WAS THERE, at least twice!

I was there – or was I?

It was Summer in 1956.  Melbourne was hosting the Olympics.  The Opening Ceremony was on 22 November.  We were a family of six – parents and four children.  We did not attend the Opening Ceremony.

But was this to good an opportunity to miss?  It had been a battle to get the Olympics to the Southern Hemisphere.  It was the rest time for the athletes in the Northern Hemisphere.  How could they be ready during their off season?  Being a bit parochial for Australia, thinking about it these days, they obviously discounted the issue that this is what Southern Hemisphere athletes were up against.  Although, even today, may spend the southern winter months in Europe or the US training so that they are in peak condition for competition.

So, it was decided.  The family needed to get to the Olympics.  Or at least, some of the family needed to attend something.  As I said, a family of six.  A single, lowish income.  This did not really allow for tickets for six.  On the basis that my brother and I were too young to appreciate it anyway, only my parents and older siblings attended.  The tickets were bought for the athletics events on 1 December – four tickets, not six.  What to do with the “young ones” as we were known?  We would miss out on the excitement – and of course we could not be left alone – my brother was only five, and I was six.  We had relations living in Oakleigh, just up from Dandenong Road.  This was a cousin, a niece of my father’s, who was a lot older than us.  She was married with children, some of them our age.  This is where we spent the day.  It was planned that we would walk down to the end of the road so that we could watch the Marathon which was to head along Dandenong Road at some stage during the afternoon – the consolation prize for not going to the Olympic venue.

Did we get to see the Marathon?  Well, sort of.  Either there was some confusion as to when they would be heading past the end of the street, or my cousin forgot the time.  But we did get down to the end of the road while the race was still on.  But there were a lot of people, and we were quite small.  We did see some of the runners, although I do not think we saw the early ones.

So, were we there?

Yes, we were in Melbourne during the 1956 Olympics.

Yes, we saw a few of the athletes competing.
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But, my brother and I did not experience much of the excitement of attending the Olympics.