Trying out a new Blogging Platform - Tumblr Time

Darragh Doyle, Rolf Potts, Manchán Magan, Áine Goggins & Karen, me

The Immrama Festival of Travel Writing 2011 was held in Lismore from June 9-12 and one of the highlights was the Bloggers' Clinic with Manchán Magan, Darragh Doyle, Áine Goggins and Rolf Potts.

Some people who'd been in contact on cyberspace were meeting up in person for the first time - Susan from Clonmel and Susan from Kilkenny were both there, fellow-bloggers and tweeters and book clubbers, and it was a great meeting of minds. I enjoyed it immensely and as I normally work flat out during Immrama covering Health and Safety at all the events, it was a real treat to take some me time for this clinic.

Susan and me

 Darragh Doyle from Boards.ie introduced Tumblr and I am giving it a trial and if it works I might divide my loyalties between it and Blogger - or they might work in symbiosis. Time will tell. I need to be adventurous and not get stuck in a rut with Blogger which has the comfort of familiarity.

The crew at the Bloggers' Clinic

So it goes...how we verified the news

Irish people can relate to this!

Susan, Manchán Magan and me

Here are some photos from the clinic - they include Karen, an extreme couchsurfer from Tramore, Manchán, old friend of Immrama on his third visit here, and the clinic "Docs" who presented - Manchán, Aine, Darragh and Rolf, in the group pic. Susan (Queen of Pots!) and me are with Manchán.

Lismore - and one of its citizens - in the Spotlight of Immrama and beyond

 I want to share these few YouTube video clips from a local Waterford company called Waterford First - they have been around for a while now promoting the beautiful county of Waterford and its beautiful people!

They came to Lismore this week and shot some footage of Lismore in glorious sunshine which shows it at its best and at this time of year it certainly looks stunning.



 There were some small clips made of hubby Jan in his capacity below here as coordinator of Immrama the Lismore Festival of Travel Writing,



and in two further short clips, from a personal perspective, where he talks about his life and work in overseas and community development and his role in local government and politics.





I hope you enjoy them - they are brief enough to hold the attention span of a proverbial gnat, yet long enough to give some insight into the place and the person, as well as some background to Immrama from one of its founder members.

This year the ninth festival takes place from June 9th to 12th in Lismore, so this time fortnight it will be all over. We are looking forward to it and I am particularly anticipating a lot of craic as well as information at the Bloggers' Clinic which is hosted by a former speaker at Immrama, Manchán Magan, who frequently writes about the festival in his Irish Times column, most recently here when he wrote about the Bloggers' Clinic.

Co-hosting is Áine Goggins from TG4's Irish Language series Ó Tholg go Tolg (From Couch to Couch) on Couchsurfing, the latest backpackers' global phenomenon which has some local participants who will host couchsurfers for Immrama weekend. Lastly, Darragh Doyle from boards.ie a discussion forum will co-present the Clinic.

I usually hover at all the events in a Hi-Viz jacket as a Health & Safety person and often miss the events but this is one gig I am looking forward to as I enjoy blogging - bad and all as I am at it lately, sorry! - and social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter have revolutionised communications.

TV programmes have never been the same since I started following their hashtags on Twitter, and they make the political programmes and some entertainment shows far more fun to watch if you read the comment stream simulataneously. Multitasking writ large I know, but that's what we're supposed to be good at! I will post about the gig after Immrama.