Old-Fashioned Irish Hospitality at Abbeylee Bed and Breakfast
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VICTORIA - Sheila Ryan wears many different hats and all of them very well. She is an Irish harpist, a singer, and a composer. And along with all this, she runs the Abbeylee Bed and Breakfast in Victoria.
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ENJOYING a sumptuous breakfast at the Abbeylee are (clockwise) owners Frank Ryan and Sheila Ryan (holding the teapot), Linda McKale from Langley, newlyweds Dorothy and Todd Gretch from Pennsylvania, and Edna Dennay from Vancouver.
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On my recent visit to Victoria, I stayed at the Abbeylee and had an opportunity to speak with Sheila about her many talents, while enjoying her hospitality and her delectable homemade breakfasts.
Sheila, her husband Frank who is from Tipperary, and their son Shane, all have a hand in running Abbeylee. The Ryans also have one daughter, Janette, who works with the United Nations and is currently in Russia.
The Abbeylee House is a beautiful historic building that was built in 1892 which the Ryans have renovated and furnished it throughout with antique furniture befitting the period. There is a wonderful relaxed atmosphere at the Abbeylee as you sit around the big dining room table with fresh-cut flowers from the garden.
Guests enjoy their morning tea or coffee from one of the antique tea sets as tantalizing aromas waft out from the kitchen and everyone waits in anticipation for one of Sheila’s gourmet breakfasts.
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IRISH HARPIST Sheila Ryan at the Abbeylee Bed and Breakfast in Victoria.
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Sheila introduces her guests to each other at the breakfast table and the conversation flows from there. It reminds me of the warm and welcoming bed and breakfasts where I stayed in Ireland.
Sheila was born in a small rural farming community just outside Limerick City called Athlacca. One of 12 children, her father played the fiddle and all of the family played some instrument, sang, or did Irish dancing. From the time Sheila was very young, she remembers wanting to play the harp, but it wasn’t until she emigrated to Canada that she finally realized her dream of becoming an Irish harpist.
The played guitar until she met harpist Susan Scott in Victoria who encouraged her to follow her dream. Sheila said, “I finally got a harp and started playing and I’ve never looked back. I love it! I write poems and songs and I really enjoy the writing side of it.
“I’ve got four recordings but I was there in the old-fashioned days, so I’ve also got a few tapes as well. I’m actually starting on a new album which is going to be a mix of Celtic and some of my own original stuff. I’ve written the music and the lyrics for a few of them.
“There’s a poem called Cushendall, I didn’t write the poem but I have written the music for it, which is basically a traditional piece of music. My new CD/DVD will be a mix of traditional and contemporary, but in a traditional vein. The instruments will all be traditional, and while my songs are mostly contemporary, they are ballad-type.
“One of the songs that I have written on my new album is called The Ghosts of the Gold Fields and it is about the emigrants that left from England and Ireland to work on the goldfields in New Zealand and Australia. They bid farewell to their loved ones and never saw them again, so it’s a tribute to those people. Two of the other songs that I’ve written for the new album are called Mystic Riders and Do They Dream, which I may call the album but I’m still working on that.”
Sheila expects her new album to be released in the next three months. She has assembled a number of excellent traditional musicians to play on her album, including Doug Sinclair who tours with Sarah McLaughlins and plays on her CD’s.
Sitting in the Ryan’s living room are three harps of various sizes. One is a very large stately golden harp which has carvings of kings and queens on it, another is mid-size in black wood, along with a smaller harp. Sheila explained the differences in the harps and the tuning required for each one.
“The large gold leaf harp is a classical harp called ‘Erat’, and it was made in London in about 1856 or 1857 around the same time as the Steinway piano,” said Sheila. “This classical harp has pedals and needs to be tuned a half an octave lower than a regular harp because that’s the way they were tuned in that time period. If you tuned it any tighter you would probably wreck the soundboard. I use the gold harp when I play at Craigdarroch Castle here in Victoria or in a big convention hall. It’s really the Mercedes of harps.
“The black harp is easier to travel with, such as when I did the concert tour of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan last fall. When I travelled to New Zealand on tour, I rented a harp there, otherwise you have to pay for another seat on the plane if you take your own harp.
“Irish harps are smaller because they carried them on horseback from one place to another. O’Carolan, the celebrated blind Irish harpist, may even have carried a lap-harp. I have a small lap-harp that I often take with me when I go on a holiday to practice on or if I want to write something. It’s also easy to pack and take as a carry-on for the plane.”
The Abbeylee Bed and Breakfast is centrally located in Victoria at 255 Government Street and close to downtown. It is just a few doors away from the famous Emily Carr house and a five minute walk to Beacon Hill Park which is a huge park with a petting zoo and peacocks that roam free.
For bookings and more information about Abbeylee, call (250) 370-1469, or 1-888-831-5660. E-mail: info@abbeylee.com, or visit their website at: www.abbeylee.com. For information or bookings for Irish harpist, singer, songwriter, Sheila Ryan, call: (250) 370-1469.
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