Until a deluge split the heavens at lunchtime on Sunday, many were increasingly inclined to believe rumours that Satan was spotted somewhere east of Shanagarry bearing a bagful of souls, his part in a Faustian bargain that saw the 2016 Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food & Wine bask in an utterly improbable mini-heatwave while the rest of the country took to the lifeboats.