Somewhere in your family tree, there’s a person who stood on Irish (or Scottish) soil for the last time. They packed what they could carry. They said goodbye to people they would never see again. They boarded a ship, in misery, hope, and terror, and they crossed an ocean toward a life they could only imagine.
They made it to America, and you’re here because they did. This September, we’re headed back.
The theme of our 2026 trip is Leaving Home. We will stand at the Dunbrody Famine Ship in Wexford, a full-scale replica of the coffin ships that carried starving people across the Atlantic. We will walk through the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin, which tells the story of what it meant to leave. We will visit the sweet Cobh of Cork: the last piece of Irish ground that millions touched before they disappeared into the Atlantic. The Titanic departed from Cobh. So did the Lusitania. So did the uncountable thousands of ordinary people whose names aren’t remembered in history books, but are remembered in your family.
We will hold the sadness. And then we’ll get back on the bus. The coffin ships carried people away from Ireland in misery. Our bus carries their descendants back, in thoughtful remembrance and in joy.
The Bus
The bus is basically a roving pub on wheels. The bus has a personality and a code. “What happens on the bus, stays on the bus!” It even has a volunteer bartender. That’s usually Mark, who originally signed himself and Jamie up for the trip before he’d ever come to see us play live. He arrived with excellent whiskey and no regrets. That is definitely one way to do it right.
Travelers board the bus as strangers and get off the bus knowing each other in the specific way that only happens when they’ve shared something authentic. The band comes prepared with poetry, history, some new tunes for sing-alongs, and a functional intuition for where the best pubs are. Someone always brings too much wine. Travelers are grateful for this detail, every time.
Lee: Our Friend and Guide
Lee is our driver and guide, and he is the reason the whole thing works as well as it does. He knows Ireland the way a musician knows a song he’s played ten thousand times, completely, and with room for something new every time. He finds things you’d never locate in a guidebook. He tells stories that stop a busload of people cold. He is our shepherd, and we mean that with the deepest respect for what he does.
“What happens on the bus stays on the bus” is a promise. We’ve kept it since 2019.
What it’s Like to Travel with Clover’s Revenge
We want to be clear about something. This is a trip with the band, and we mean that literally. Beau, Zach, and John are sitting, standing, walking and hanging out the whole time. We count heads when we load the bus. We take pride in loading and unloading suitcases, and we set up our own PA. We’re at dinner, and at the pub, and will probably be sitting on a wall somewhere in Kilkenny waiting for slower walkers and stragglers.
It feels a lot more like family than it does going on tour with a band. There’s no backstage or green room. There’s just thirty-ish people rolling through Ireland together, getting into things. When we walk into a pub to play, and those thirty people walk in right behind us, that’s pretty fun. The group is genuinely excited and loudly supportive. We’re ready to spend money and tip like Americans, which Irish bar owners find baffling (but they don’t mind!). The whole room feels it. The group feels like they’re in the band, because in the best possible way, they are.
People come away with stories they tell for years. Some of those stories we’re allowed to repeat. Most of them we can’t, because, what happens on the bus…
Who’s Traveling?
In 2025, we had four generations of people riding on the bus. Folks from Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Alaska (Hi Danny!). People who had never heard us play before they signed up to travel with us through Ireland. Second-generation Irish-Americans and people whose family connection is five generations old, or older. Complete strangers have become lifelong friends on this trip. That happens every time, without fail. Ireland does something to a group. So does the bus. So does Lee.
If you’ve been thinking about joining us, this is the year. Spots are filling, and September in Ireland is beautiful
Your people left Ireland once. You get to bring them back with you.
Come join us and make your own stories on our Leaving Home: Clover’s Revenge Tour Of Ireland 2026. We are already filling up so let us know if you want more information.
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Agreed! Super fun trip. I have many memories and videos to prove it.
And Beau-loved your blog. Superior.