The guitarist wandered in with two cases and what seemed a permanent scowl on his face. He had gray dreadlocks and sandals on his feet.  One of the first things he did was knock his guitar over.

“That’s the guy who played at St. James last night,” said a fellow pub-goer. “Only that night he wasn’t wearing shoes.”

Oh, man, I thought. What are we in for?

What we were in for was some of the most inspired, toe-tapping, goose-pimple-raising Irish music I’ve ever heard.

The dreadlocked and sandaled one was no other than Steve Cooney, who’s played with the Chieftains, Altan and other primo Gaelic groups. According to barstool neighbor Tom O’Connor, he is the adopted son of an aboriginal chief who grew up in Australia and moved to Ireland in 1980. He was also briefly married to Sinead O’Connor.  A quick glance at Wikipedia confirmed all of this. (It also confirmed that no one is ever married long to Sinead O’Connor.)

That’s neither here nor there, though. All that mattered was the driving rhythm, the concertina player (whose name I never caught, perhaps equally famous?) who added the melody … and the end result, which was pure heaven. All in one night at the Courthouse Pub.