Knowing the value of home ahead of Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing

Colm Tóibín will address the themes of emigration and exile at the upcoming Immrama festival of travel writing, says Marjorie Brennan.

It takes quite the leap of imagination to envisage one of Ireland’s greatest writers pulling pints behind a hotel bar.

But Colm Tóibín’s stint working in a seaside resort was more fruitful than most summer jobs. When the 17-year-old wasn’t on duty in the Grand Hotel in Tramore, he was reading Ernest Hemingway on the beach.