a right grand sendoff

Me & my baby bro, Guy at our aunt Canice's wake, Druid's Hall, Nicasio, June 1, 2012. Photos I thought I had lost when my hard drive crashed, but they were still on a memory card. What you can't hear in this photo is the music. Father O'Sullivan, who officiated the memorial, on the tin whistle, the fabulous Cormac Gannon on the uillean pipes and Neil O'Neill on guitar & vocals. And a bagpiper to-ing and fro-ing us to the church and back again around the baseball diamond that passes for a town square. Most of the Walsh-Sullivan-Reilly clan gathered. It was a right grand sendoff. So many family wakes and weddings at Druid's Hall. If you've never seen the ceiling of the Druid's Hall, or St. Mary's church, they're like a wooden boat. Beautiful curved woodwork. We are ships sailing to far distant shores. OK, so maybe we were also two sheets to the wind. What of it? It was a real Irish wake. Everything went swimmingly until cousin Dave set off the cherry bombs and the cops came by...