IRISH Night at the Bermuda Folk Club lived up to all of the pre-show hype and was standing-room-only as the pride of Ireland (and Bermuda) performed before a packed house at the weekend.

The show started off with a bit of chivalry as Georgina McDonald of Georgina and Friends kicked things off while surrounded by two gorgeous back-up singers and two guitarists. Georgina and Friends' last performance was at Canadian Nights, another favourite night at the Folk Club.

Also making a return to the stage was reporter Scott Neil, who seemed to set the pace not only with a bit of history behind his songs, but his loyal following made their presence known. Literature buffs would have recognised Neil's opening tune from Irishman W.B. Yeats' poem entitled Stolen Child.

His original tune entitled Lochan was well received and the Savvy Scotsman had the audience in the palm of his hand as some women in the audience took advantage of the Kodak and immortalised his 15 minutes of fame. His closing number was Suzann Vega's Luka, which was well done.

In her last Folk Club appearance, Sharon Murphy was accompanied by violinists David France and Niamh Gleeson on lead vocals. Those present at last month's 'open mic' night would have remembered the duo of Murphy and Gleeson, who received a thunderous ovation for their performance.

They were a tough act to follow, but Johnny Bohan (pictured) was more than up to the task. Not the selfish type, Johnny invited two eager and very attractive women from the audience to join him onstage, one of whom was Bermuda's very own Joy Barnum.

Bohan also shared the stage with another crooner during his unplugged set. Perhaps the liveliest portion of Bohan's set was with fellow crooner Hugh Brown. While much of our colloquial expression is the same as Irish slang, Hugh's rendition of a popular football song was humorous as well as entertaining.

Bohan's fans' occupied the entire front row of the club, mainly Bermuda LaCrosse Club team-mates, their wives and girlfriends and fellow Irish crooners.

Ben Nunn (aka Ben Jammin') teamed up with Barnum to perform Woke Up ,an original tune written by Nunn, and Barnum chipped in with the vocals. Barnum performed two solo tunes. One, O Glory, was a spiritual tune that had a few high register notes, which was no easy feat. Her second song, Carly, was another original penned by Barnum.

Murphy, who is leaving for the UK, and friends, including Marcel Zettler and Michel Michael McPhee, returned for an encore set which included such cover tunes as Linger by the Cranberries, Mary (an Irish tune), You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrisette and Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.

Not to be outdone, the local lacrosse players cheered themselves hoarse for the return of Bohan, who willingly obliged them as he and Hugh Brown brought the house down.

It was definitely a craic (Irish for 'good times' or 'fun') for all and sundry. The next Folk Club event will be on April 1.