The Bottom Line
Pros
- Self-styled capital of Irish traditionall music with sessions and shops.
Cons
- Success killed most "traditional" elements off.
- Doolin does not live up to hype.
Description
- Doolin has three pubs, four hostels, dozens of B&Bs, several restaurants and music shops.
- It also has a fearsome reputation for good, original tradition music - due to the Russells (which have passed on long ago).
- Modern Doolin does not live up to this reputation but is often regarded as a tourist trap.
Guide Review - Doolin (County Clare)
Upon driving into Doolin you might be surprised - mainly by the fact that you will have left the village before you realize you are in it. Doolin is tiny. And unless some starry- or bleary-eyed tourists stumble in front of your car you'll be at the small harbor (and the definite end of the road) before you know it.
Doolin came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s because of Micho Russell, an unmarried player of the tin whistle (and, some say, model for the "Podge & Rodge" puppets). Russell and his brothers put Doolin on the map and the quiet backwater mutated into "trad music central". Today a large number of largely unexciting pubs and shops cater for the masses, invading with clockwork regularity to experience, consume and buy "tradition".
Most of the music you will hear, however, is mediocre. Which does not deter the hordes of backpackers and "Plastic Paddies" to enthusiastically join in. When you see a dreadlocked German student tearing his just-bought bodhrán out of its packing it is time to go. Soon some Italians will demand "dee wild-e rovair" and the real traditionalist will wish for some light relief - like a root treatment without painkillers.
But one has to admit that the occasional musical nugget may be found in Doolin ...
