Beatles Ireland Magical Mystery Tour

1998

Seven Counties, 30 hours and a round trip of some 400 miles was what this year's Magical Mystery Tour consisted of; yet despite the changeable weather Beatles Ireland members made the most of the venture.

Having departed from Dublin, I boarded the fully-decorated Beatles Ireland Bus in Kildare town and what a great job Pat and Vanie did with balloons and decorations. Everyone was in great spirit; the sun was beaming down and Dave Walsh was nominated D.J for the day.

The White House was our first stop. No! Not that one; but one in Roscrea. Here we all modeled our free Beatle T-shirts. Nigel and Dave re-created the Abbey Road picture, and Dave didn’t know where he was. He reckoned we were in Ballina (and he’d only had one drink!).

60’s COSTUMES

Next stop was Toomevara for some ice cream "Three 99’s" I shouted into Dave. "£2:97" came the reply. The poor shopkeeper didn’t know what was happening. All these weird people (I agree these are a weird bunch of people. ED) with shades and 60’s costumes, taking over this quiet little village. Terry purchased some Armani glasses (?) and we all tried to become instant millionaires by picking every combination possible on The Lotto.

More songs, more craic and at last we could see the Irish coast. Kilrush, Kilkee, and into Doonaha; a peaceful, picturesque location hidden away from everywhere. Dave joked that because of its isolation Let It Be is only being released here next week.

BEATLE MUSEUM

Dick and Maureen were delighted to see us and they certainly made us all feel at home with a full buffet. For any Beatle fan, this is surely Ireland’s one-stop Beatle Museum.

Everything The Beatles ever released is here. Original vinyl albums and singles, books, posters, autographs, CD’s and box-sets are on display; and of course, the proudly-displayed photograph of Maureen with John Lennon taken back in the late sixties. It’s a fan’s paradise. You could spend hours walking around trying to see everything and it can be thirsty work!

To quench this thirst it was back into the bus for us and destination Carrigaholt. Jack’s Anchor Bar was our oasis for the night, or should that be morning! Dave Walsh reckoned the beer was ...well, let’s just say he didn’t like it. Still, it didn’t stop him singing Monkees songs out in the streets at 2:00am.

Back in Maureen’s, on behalf of the club Pete was presented with a beautiful enlarged framed picture of Maureen and John by Dick and Maureen. After several songs and much toasting and endless jokes from Dave and Dave, we fell into bed in the nearby B&B.

SUNDAY MORNING

Sunday morning was wet and dreary so we didn’t rise too early (now that’s a good excuse for a hangover. ED). After breakfast we arrived back at the Halls but our bus was leaving without us! We had to run after it to get on, or it was gone, leaving us behind (check out the video).

There were loads of photographs taken as we said farewell to Dick and Maureen. Despite going home, the enthusiasm was as high as before. To shorten the homeward journey everyone tried my little Beatles Lyrics Quiz (check it out in the next issue) to keep them awake.

So for those who went on the trip what did they think? Pat had a great time but needs a week to recover. Mark reckons it wasn’t a rough night, but he was clean, had perfect eyesight and could walk before he went! Vanie was speechless after the trip, and Terry muttered some Russian jargon; but I think he loved it also. (By the way – so did his sister, I hear!)

Videos of this momentous event are now available from Beatles Ireland. Contact the club for more details.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks to Dick and Maureen for being wonderful hosts and allowing eleven people to wreck their lovely home, to Pat and Vanie for organizing everything, to Dave Walsh and Dave Phillips for endless jokes and for giving me a pain in my stomach from laughing. To Pete, Nigel, Terry and Mark for being great craic, and finally to Fergus (our driver) for putting up with us and being so co-operative.

Michael Lynch

Back to the Top

Custom Search

Home ¦ News ¦ Irish Heritage ¦ Irish Stories ¦ Newsletter ¦ Noticeboard ¦ John Lennon ¦ Paul McCartney ¦ George Harrison ¦ Ringo Starr ¦ Beatles Bits ¦ Links ¦ Beatles Fact Files ¦ Disclaimers ¦ What is Beatles Ireland? ¦ Plans for the Future ¦ Requests for Information ¦ Copyright Information ¦ Privacy Statement ¦

© 2006 Beatles Ireland. All rights reserved. No part of these publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express written permission of Beatles Ireland.
Beatles Ireland is a non-profit site.