Sword fighting action at the Viking Festival, AnnagassanPhoto Link: <Viking Festival photos>
Video Link: <YouTube video of Viking Festival Night>
This weekend we had Jackson Allan (John Allan's son) to stay with us for a break from the rigors of Dublin living. So of course we went down the local for the usual Friday night trad session, and we heard about the Annagassan Viking Festival. What Viking Festival!? Apparently a full size Viking boat had tried to get into our local fishing harbour that day, but the boat was too big, so they went to Clogherhead (the next village along) instead - where they have a full size port with deep water access. This boat was sailed/rowed to Ireland by a Danish crew - it took them 7 weeks via Norway, the Shetlands & Orkney Islands. So on Saturday afternoon we checked out the Viking boat at Clogherhead and saw some quite large grey seals chasing fish that people were catching. Back in Annagassan, the Viking Festival was well underway in a local cow paddock. Trad music, Irish dancing, a chip van, Viking sword fights, etc, etc. They had history tours of the village and Clare got all the info about Vikings living here in the year 836 AD. All good fun for the village, and the Master of Ceremonies was dressed as a Roman Centurion - not sure what that was all about!
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