Immrama 2010 - another terrific weekend in Lismore

The 8th Immrama Travel Writing Festival has ended and it was a great success - I am still on a high after the buzz of all the events and the Eason's bag bursting with new books signed by the authors beckons from the sunroom table - a winter of reading is warmly anticipated, if they don't get me through the summer.

We had a blast - I am not going to do a journalistic resumé of the weekend, just dip in and out of what floated my boat - an apt analogy as Immrama is all about voyaging about in boats! The line-up was impressive as you'll know from my last post and the one from the launch, and there were some events and speakers that stood out more than others.

I found the deadpan droll self-deprecation of Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wickham-Fiennes hilarious (with a name like that you'd need a major sense of humour!) and very engaging. He had the capacity audience of 500 enthralled with his tales of derring-do boys' own adventures, and was very open about his motives for doing expeditions - to put bread on the table, nothing loftier or nobler than that. He has written his autobiography and also a family bio, and some motivational books on fitness and endurance - he has been monitored and evaluated more than a recession-bound nation by the IMF. The elephant in the room of course (which he was asked about and duly elaborated on) was his digital self-amputation of most of the fingers of his left hand following a close encounter with Arctic water that resulted in frostbite and gangrene. He couldn't wait the requisite six months the medics demanded so off he went to the shed where he hacksawed them off - a messy job with the hand saw so he hightailed to the hardware shop for the Black and Decker version which did the business. All tastefully accompanied by graphic colour photographs, and not for the faint-hearted.

Today's Irish Times has a feature piece on him, and Immrama gets another mention . Manchán Magan wrote a nice piece last Saturday on it, so it's really arrived as a festival when it gets such national acclaim.



He seems to have been an impoverished aristocrat with a string of impressive titles and ancestry. That seems to be a pattern in such circles, and I still laugh at the description of the Anglo-Irish aristos of yore, in the post-colonial era so well described by Waterford's own late Molly Keane in Good Behaviour when she wrote about how the dogs ate better than they did in their shabby gentility lifestyle. Her father bought the dogs steak, a rarity on the family dinner table.

Homan Potterton wrote in Rathcormick that the Anglo-Irish were distinguishable from the Irish Protestants in the nascent Republic as the ones where the dogs occupied all the comfy armchairs while their owners shivered in their unheated big rooms, sitting on kitchen chairs. He distanced himself from these recent settlers and landlord classes, as a proud Irishman from a Protestant family with roots in Ireland for over four centuries.

Back to Immrama - we were very lucky to have an invitation for the premiére of a film on the life of Lismore's internationally renowned travel writer - Dervla Murphy - which was unique as she is such a private person. It had wonderful cinematography, and showed the moods of Lismore trailing Dervla through the Warren Path and down by the Blackwater as well as around the Old Market where she lives. It was a bit surreal to see familiar faces on the big screen - her daughter Rachel in Italy with her three daughters, Dervla herself, and Manchán Magan the film maker and writer/journalist who was in the audience - he was at Immrama as a visitor this year, having been the Literary Breakfast speaker last year.

We enjoyed Tim Severin on Saturday evening - he has been on some incredible voyages and writes novels now based on his experiences - the Viking Trilogy and the Pirate Trilogy - as well as lots of non-fiction based on his voyages. He lives in West Cork and is practically an honorary Irishman by now, and he showed some memorable film clips from his journeys, particularly the Brendan Voyage which explores the possibility of the Irish monk travelling to America centuries before Columbus.


The Literary Breakfast in Ballyrafter House was lovely - Damien Lewis was speaking about Africa and Burma where he has written the stories of some incredibly brave women of the Southern Sudanese conflict and the Darfur genocide, and the Karen refugees from Burma. A serendipitous moment was meeting his Tanzanian partner - we had a Kiswahili exchange - a bit rusty on my part but a surprise for her to meet someone in Lismore who could attempt to speak it! More serendipity was the link to previous Immrama speakers, as Tim Butcher

knows him and commented on one of his books.

A new name for us was Pico Iyer who is an amazing, softly spoken travel writer and philosopher who has written a novel set in Cuba and a number of travel books on subjects as diverse as the Dalai Lama and airports - he has been described as a transcendental travel writer - and he reminds me of Alain de Botton with his reflective take on the trivia of travel. He was with his Japanese partner Hiroko, a lovely lady with silk clothing to die for - she wore a traditional Tibetan dress with wonderful intricate weaving and fabulous wraps - and they live in Japan though they travel all over the world. They spent the weekend in Lismore so we met on numerous occasions outside of his talk and book-signing.

Jan Morris was another rare treat and a great honour for Immrama to have such a well-known and respected writer speaking - she is in her eighties and has led an amazing life, writing over thirty books on so many subjects and places. She spoke at Fortwilliam House, a Georgian hunting lodge dating back to the 1830s - a wonderful place now owned privately and offered as a venue for Immrama to stage an event. A marquee on the tennis courts was the perfect location for the 150+ who were there for the closing gig of the weekend - although rain stopped play on two occasions as the noise on the roof drowned out the microphone. Undaunted, she read from her latest book Contact! and followed it with a Q&A session with Pico Iyer and her friend and biographer Paul Clements, who was here for the third time doing a Travel Memoir writing workshop over the weekend. We had a chance to savour the delights of Fortwilliam House before and after the talk as there was a wine reception beforehand and we had supper there afterwards, with some of the other guests. The vistas of parkland rolling down to the river Blackwater are idyllic and in the glorious weather which Lismore had for most of the weekend it was perfect - rainshowers notwithstanding!

There were Poetry Readings for kids in the Park by Alan Murphy, a locally based poet, and Pippa Sweeney, Irish Language Workshops for Primary Schools by Áine Uí Fhoghlú, Paul Clements' Creative Writing, Poetry Slams, and The Molly Keane Short Story Award, all going on over the weekend. So there was something for everyone, and the Family Fun Day in the Park on Sunday afternoon is a firm favourite fixture, with Buí Bolg (Yellowbellies) from Wexford entertaining with jousters and damsels in distress, and face painters from Lismore's Foróige, as well as the talented band Carouse who kept the crowd going for the afternoon.

The Farmers' Market was buzzing all weekend and hopefully they had plenty of business, with a great variety of stalls from Jane's ceramics to Pie in the Sky treats, with lots in between. A real treat this year was to meet one of my fellow bloggers - Ann from Inkpots'nQuills via Wisconsin and Dungarvan who was here last year before we met in the blogosphere!

I should really break up this post into a few parts as I could go on for way past anyone's attention span (and probably have done so) but I just want to convey a sense of the weekend while it is still fresh in my mind. We had late nights and early mornings which took its toll in that I was running on adrenaline and tea all weekend - no alcohol whatsoever as I daren't risk a hangover headache - and I was pretty wrecked on Monday! Lucky it was a day off work for me, and I could chill and zone out a bit. We were in a different pub each night as the Festival Club diplomatically spread itself around - and it really felt like old friends came to call as we met so many people who were at previous Immrama weekends - including Manchán, Paul Clements and some of the regular visitors. One of the joys of Immrama is the social contact with writers, speakers, journalists, locals and visitors all together at the events and the social gatherings afterwards, and the great accessibility to the speakers by the general public.

Who knows how many more of you might make it to Lismore for Immrama 2011! You'll be guaranteed a great time and plenty of good memories - as well as a lot of new books!

I hope you like the photos - they just give a flavour of the wonderful weekend in a lovely corner of the country.

From the top:

• Sir Ranulph Fiennes
• Fortwilliam House
• Audience at Ranulph Fiennes
• Jan Morris, Pico Iyer and Paul Clements at Fortwilliam, and audience
• Shayne and Jany with Sofia in the Park
• Our sons with Ranulph Fiennes
• Me and sons and Jany with Tim Severin
• Larks in the Park with jousters
• Damien Lewis at the Ballyrafter House Breakfast
• Me with Pico Iyer and Hiroko
• Jane Jermyn Ceramics at the Farmers' Market
• Áine Uí Fhoghlú (Irish Poet) with Bernard Leddy, schoolchildren and me at Lismore Library
• Me with Ann - bloggers united!

A Birthday Celebration - and a Cake Challenge!

Last week we celebrated a significant birthday for hubby Jan in a local hotel, Ballyrafter House Hotel in Lismore, which is the perfect venue for a family and friends gathering such as this. We had planned it for some months and it wasn't a surprise as all his family from Holland were coming to Ireland for a holiday the week of the birthday to celebrate it. As they were going back on a Saturday, we decided to have the party on the Thursday night. Not the best night for a party, but it was the best option, as we had our trip to the Ring of Kerry (which I already wrote about here) on the Tuesday, and they had other local sightseeing trips in the Cork/Waterford area on the other days, as well as spending time hanging out at our place for the odd barbecue.

The party was lovely, and attended by our good friends from the area as well as the family. We had lovely buffet food, sandwiches and finger food - vol-au-vents and stuffed mushrooms, prawns in filo pastry, sausages, chicken and wedges - which was served around 10.30pm, and then we had the cake and Jan blew out his candles - to spare his lungs we got numbered candles rather than a large number of individual ones - we could have had problems lighting so many besides! The cake was my only contribution to the catering, and I was justifiably proud of it as I hadn't made a huge cake like this before, or even a large birthday cake since the days of the kids' parties, when style over substance was the golden rule. I relied heavily on a wonderful book, my Party Cakes bible by Jane Asher (the Yummy Mummy of the 1980s turned actress - or vice versa, not sure - and still going strong if I see her website!) and her decorated marvels graced many a party table in Tanzania and Laos and Ireland throughout the past 27 years. Now it was a chance to get creative in a slightly more restrained and tasteful fashion with a proper grown-up cake. I kept it simple - a golden rule when doing something a bit unfamiliar in the kitchen - and it worked a treat. Understated and tasteful - as well as tasty - and everyone concurred and loved it, which was endorsement enough for me! The proprietor asked me "Did you make that cake yourself?" which I could take as a compliment or otherwise - if she was surprised should I be offended? Anyway I took it as a compliment - albeit slightly backhanded - is it such a surprise that I could make something impressive?

We had a great night, with music by Billy and Liam, a duo guitar-keyboard combo from Lismore who play a wide range of music and get people out on the floor - teenagers excepted who were too cool for school to dance. They played a mix of country, pop, rock, trad, and even rolled out some Dubliners for the Dutch visitors. One of our friends, Noreen, did a Hornpipe Irish dance for the guests, and she wowed them with her energy and perfect foot-tapping - true Riverdance style, ramrod stiff arms-at-side style. So it was a good night with craic and camaraderie, and it was lovely to see our friends and family all enjoying the evening. Jan made a short thank you speech in Schouwse, his Dutch dialect from the island Schouwen-Duiveland in Zeeland, which is quite different from Dutch and which I think I can follow pretty well though I balk at talking it. Dutch is challenge enough for me!

We were home by about 2a.m. which was not a late night but as the next day was a work day for a lot of the guests we didn't expect it to be a late night. Jan opened his pressies when we got home, and he got some lovely things, and some hilarious cards - all about the mind over matter of being 60! I think you're as young as you feel (or as the woman you feel, depending on the card you read and your point of view!) and he's a very young 60-year old - anyone who can cycle 100km on a Sunday afternoon can't be too over the hill - and he's already signed up for this year's Seán Kelly Tour.

Here are some of the photos - I will post the cake recipe separately if anyone is interested, as it is all proportion and cutting to shape - and is very manageable but you would need to work on if over two days.

Immrama Table Quiz - a Fun Fundraiser and Brain Teaser

Last Friday night saw the first fundraiser for Immrama 2010 with the annual Table Quiz in Ballyrafter House Hotel. This is a much-anticipated event for the past few years since Immrama became a fixture on Lismore's cultural calendar.

Our not-quite-winning team - Mike, Jane, me and Alan mulling things over

Edward the local vet is the quizmaster extraordinaire who sets the questions and can always be relied on to throw a few curveball cryptic questions. It's all in good spirits and most people don't get too hung up on winning, just having a good time and enjoying the craic. There are always good prizes donated by local businesses and people and they are raffled at half-time, bringing in yet more dosh. People are very generous and despite the recession, the local arts don't seem to suffer - Immrama last year was extremely well supported by everyone who flocked to Lismore to see both celebrity and lesser known travel writers in person.

I was on a team with three friends, and we were enjoying ourselves thoroughly with no recriminations when an answer was wrong despite being sure it was definitely the right one - I tried not to be too pushy as I have a tendency to be sure I'm right when I may just be a tad wrong! I was chuffed to have the correct answer to the highest capital city in Europe (answer: Madrid at about 700m/2,100ft altitude) and we had fun deciding whether the question referred to altitude or latitude. The first round was a string of word puzzles - not just anagrams but cryptic words within words - they have done the rounds of some table quizzes lately and are great fun. How about this - "lang4uage" or "mail male"? I'll leave you to figure them out and will answer them in the comments later!

Ballyrafter is a lovely venue for the quiz . It's a country house hotel just outside Lismore, and Immrama has used it from the start in 2003 for the Literary Breakfast on the Sunday of the festival. This event is always the first one to be fully booked. Hubby was manning the computer score spreadsheet and managing any disputed scores. Our teen daughter and four of her friends were collectors on the evening (gathering up the answer sheets after each round) and ticket sellers for the raffle.

I was delighted to win two prizes - a voucher for a studio photo with a local photographer, and a ceramic pot made by friend and quiz team-mate Jane! You can see the pot in the photos here. It was the second pot I won in the Immrama table quiz - I got the narrow-necked one a few years back and now have a nice set. Investments for retirement perhaps? They are certainly unique, and she has some terrific work.

We didn't win the quiz - that accolade went to a team from Fermoy who are table quiz veterans and feared in quiz circles as unbeatable - but we were pipped at the post for 3rd place by a two tie-breaking teams in 2nd place. So we were technically 3rd but actually 4th which was great. It was a lovely evening and nice to meet friends who had come along with their teams.

Now it's countdown to the next fundraising event - Devonshire Day in March. I blogged about it last year and may do so again if there is anything different to add, and then we have the launch and festival itself to look forward to. Watch this space for updates and more info as the festival line-up unfolds over the coming months - though nothing will be revealed until the launch party.

Photos of the quiz with hubby at the raffle prize table; my raffle prized pots by Jane.