Literature: Immrama festival

Lismore, Co Waterford

The sun was a secondary attraction in Lismore at the weekend. Saturday’s Immrama programme of travel writers ensured there was a rapt crowd discussing events and places from Iran’s Mount Ararat to Inis Meáin. Waterford man Michael Whelan spoke passionately about his numerous trips to Iran and later Charlie Bird interspersed his talk about the Canadian Inuit people of Grise Fiord with accounts of extensive travels undertaken while working at RTÉ.

Addressing Sunday’s literary breakfast at Ballyrafter House was the author of A Year of Festivals in Ireland. Mark Graham has spent much of the last three years travelling around Ireland attending and writing about festivals, large and small. Frustrated by banks and replete with mortgage dissatisfaction, he was motivated to attend three festivals every week for a year by the persistent belief in the dogged ingenuity of the Irish people. Graham initially blogged about his experiences of seeking out Ireland’s underlying positivity but it was from his recently published book that the Immrama audience were treated to riotous extracts.