Connelly travels home for Immrama

CHARLIE Connelly, author of self-deprecating, quirky travel books, is the host of this year’s literary breakfast at the Immrama festival of travel writing in Lismore, Co Waterford, on Jun 16.

Connelly has written ten books, beginning with Stamping Grounds, in which he followed the Liechtenstein national football team in their unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. His most recent book is 2012’s Bring Me Sunshine: A Windswept, Rain-Soaked, Sun-Kissed, Snow-Capped Guide To Our Weather. He is also a presenter on BBC television and radio. While his early books related to football, in 2004 he wrote Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast, in which he travelled to the places mentioned in the iconic British weather forecast. It was a huge success. “For most of my work, it isn’t so much where you go, as the journey itself and the purpose of the journey,” he says. “I am not the type of travel writer who can give you 1,000 words on the ten best hotels in Buenos Aires. But, even in the most mediocre of places, you can find something interesting to write about, perhaps a historical event or a person you meet. It is challenging, at times; I remember one small, and very dull, village in Western Denmark, which translated as the ‘inlet of the glove’. Apparently, there is a Norse story that a woman lost a glove here and this was such an exciting event that they named the town after it.” Attention All Shipping was named ‘book of the week’ by the BBC and the first print run sold out in days. “It seemed to strike a chord with all sorts of people, from landlubbers in middle England, who had listened to the forecast as children, to retired naval captains. If I could bottle that magic, I would be considerably wealthier than I am.”

Inspired by his Irish roots, Connelly moved to Ireland in 2009. This is described in 2010’s Our Man In Hibernia: Ireland, The Irish And Me. “Even though he wasn’t close to his family, my father had Irish roots,” Connelly says. “I grew up in an anonymous suburb that wasn’t quite London and wasn’t quite Kent. I was aware of the strong sense of identity of the Irish community in London, and, perhaps, it was something I latched onto subconsciously. Certainly, I was an awful plastic paddy in the 1990s, listening to Christy Moore records and drinking in Scruffy Murphys.”

His homecoming was a disappointment. “The area my father came from is near Killeagh, in East Cork, which is quite an attractive little village,” he says. “But when I actually came to my ancestral townland, the weather changed and it felt bleak and oppressive and unwelcoming. I don’t know what I was expecting — perhaps a thatched cottage in the sunshine and tea with my long-lost cousins — but this wasn’t it. I could see why my family had left in the first place.”

Connelly returned to the UK in 2012. “The recession was declared in Ireland three weeks after I arrived and I do feel slightly responsible and a bit guilty for leaving ye all in it,” he says. “Oddly enough, I will really miss GAA and League of Ireland matches. I have returned to a country, after all, which considers John Terry a role model.”

* www.lismoreimmrama.com