BRISK sales and bums on seats would be a crude summation of what was possibly the busiest and best West Cork Literary Festival to date.
An interview with the mesmerising and deeply eloquent actor and author Richard E Grant sold out in record time; so too did the perennially popular Graham Norton; while people queued long before the doors opened to get as close as possible to the somewhat elusive but hugely talented movie maker and author Neil Jordan.
But there’s more to Bantry’s literary festival than huge crowds in the amply proportioned ballroom at The Maritime Hotel. Marino Church, for example, was full to bursting with people clamouring to hear more from Claire Connolly about West Cork’s first literary giants, Sommerville and Ross, authors of The Irish RM.
Claire, who is a professor of Modern English at University College Cork, was being a bit self-depreciating when she claimed it was the downpour on Sunday that drove people indoors.
As literary events go, it was extraordinary. How could it not with questions and the mimic-like readings by Danielle O’Donovan, who is the new director of The Butter Museum.
Claire was clearly impressed by Danielle’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Sommerville and Ross and her very funny readings, which kept everyone entertained.
Valerie Cullinane, Schull and Sarah Raven, Ballydehob.
Tom and Jane Sommerville, the owners of Drishane House in Castletownshend, which has been continuously occupied by the Sommerville family since the 18th century attended the event.
So too did a woman who confessed to the audience that her sole reason for relocating to West Cork was the Sommerville and Ross stories of The Irish RM.
Two books by the late 19th century Anglo-Irish writers, Edith Anna Somerville and Violet Martin, who were cousins and literary collaborators, had been out of print for a while, but the London-based publisher, riverrun, reissued the beloved Irish classics Experiences of an Irish RM and The Real Charlotte late last year.
Claire, who wrote the new preface for both books, said sales were brisk with The Real Charlotte selling out first because people knew The Irish RM. ‘But when that was gone,’ she said, ‘panic buying seemed to set in and people purchased the remaining copies of the RM.
Prof Claire Connolly.
The West Cork Literary Festival was a week-long celebration of writing and reading. It featured not just famous Irish and international writers, but also emerging writers on the precipice of making it big.
Festival director, Eimear O’Herlihy, encapsulated just how jam-packed the programme was offering everything from writing workshops to masterclasses, readings by international and Irish authors, a good mix of Cork talent, an increased focus on translated literature, a pop-up gaeltacht, the annual trip to Whiddy Island, showcases of new and emerging writers, yoga on the lawn of Bantry House, and a spot of sea swim for those who needed a little time out.
‘We had novelists, short story writers, essayists, poets, illustrators, songwriters, nature writers, historians and so much more. And, as always, we were proud to offer a full programme for children and young people, all of which were available free of charge,’ she added.
