Tales of horror and adventure in Lismore

The Immrama festival of travel writing was a hugely enjoyable event, writes Juno McEnroe

LISMORE’S Festival of Travel-Writing attracts celebrated authors and adventurers who add to the magic which fills the tranquil hamlet for the annual gathering.

A feast of exotic tales and accounts of dangerous journeys have filled the 13 years of the Waterford festival. This year was no different.

Titled Immrama, an old Irish word for journey, the festival allows audiences get up close with award-winning writers while enjoying the serene town, watched over by the stately Lismore Castle.

This year saw the irrepressible war correspondent Robert Fisk recount his dispatches from Syria, after returning only days earlier from the war-torn region.

America’s role in the Middle East, the Palestinian question and Tony Blair’s decision to go to war with Iraq all featured during his engaging, booked-out talk on the Saturday night.

Fisk, based in Beirut, said the conflict in Syria puts the 15-year civil war in Lebanon into the shade. Pondering the sometimes “parasitic relationship” between journalists and those in power, the British correspondent was candid about the West’s actions in in the Middle East.

“The Middle East is not a football match, it’s a bloody tragedy. We shouldn’t report it with equal balance on both sides,” he argued.

Fisk is an unapologetic critic of Israel when it comes to the plight of the Palestinians.

“We must be neutral and unbiased on the sides that suffer,” he added.

Just as engaging were the author’s ideas on decisive moments in modern conflicts: he has doubts whether Osama bin Laden was in fact buried at sea after being shot dead by US soldiers in Pakistan; the US will arm Al Nusra, a branch of Al-Qaeda, against Islamic State in Syria; Tony Blair should have quit as prime minister after the Good Friday Agreement.

As always, Fisk had no trouble answering tough questions from his audience, including on his unflinching criticism of Israel or the Mubarak regime in Egypt.

Equally entertaining, though more lighthearted, was the talk given by actor and adventurer Charley Boorman. Renowned for his motorbike expeditions with fellow-actor Ewan McGregor across Africa and Asia, Boorman brought listeners on a whirlwind journey, recounting the bike tours stopping in front of herds of elephants, meeting the leaders of troubled nations, as well as his recent TV series, including Wicklow to Sydney By Any Means. His next projects includes traversing the inaccessible Darien Gap of Panama, where the bikers will guard against everything from bugs to drug traffickers. It’s a risky trek, I put to him, like others in a world that increasingly seems fraught with dangers.

Boorman, who spent much of his youth in Ireland, responded calmly: “Travelling through the world is not that difficult. It’s usually down to politicians sensationalising things. There are isolated incidents... but if you listened to everybody, you’d never go anywhere.”

Other speakers over the weekend included Jonathan Shackleton, related to Irish-born Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton; and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, who entertained a packed-out session at Ballyrafter House on her journey across Indochina’s Ho Chi Minh trail.

Fringe events included music and kayaking and cycling adventures into the Blackwater Valley. The latter allows visitors to travel the river or meadows near the castle, where it becomes evident why the allure of Lismore looks set to attract adventurers, writers and world-famous authors for years to come.