RORY GALLAGHER IN IRELAND: THE FLANNEL BANSHEE BREAKS OUT!

Six I.R.A. bombs went off in Belfast the day of Rory Gallagher's second sold-out show at Ulster Hall, including one in the middle of the city's main shopping center. Add to this the numerous bomb threats and the explosive dismantled beneath the car of a newly-appointed Irish high court judge, and you realize that—although it's truly a beautiful country—Ireland isn't exactly the safest place to visit these days.

The morning newspapers greet you with the heading: "MURDER—If you know anything about terrorist activities, murders, threats or explosives, please speak now to the Belfast Confidential Telephone," and stories of how "children in Northern Ireland ghettos have been adversely affected by the violence they grew up with, becoming less friendly and more aggressive to each other." There are security posts throughout the city where citizens are frisked and searched (the same takes place at the airport, and no part is left untouched), not to mention the helicopters overhead and numerous military trucks patrolling the city with machine guns protruding from the back.