Hey from Hay!

I had a great time at the Hay Festival in Kells last weekend. It has to be the most friendly festival I’ve ever been to. The organisers couldn’t do enough to make one feel like they were a superstar! There was even a green room with all the coffee, food and treats that you could ever want. I also got a goodie bag with a t-shirt and I even got lunch and dinner.

My reading was at 5pm, which, unfortunately (for me) was at the same time as Francis Brennan who pulled in about 400 people. There were two other well known writers on at the time too. As well as that, Northern Ireland were playing Wales in the Euros.

Poetry rarely draws in huge crowds so I wasn’t expecting anyone to show up except for these two below.

Thankfully there were a few other people and aside from family and friends, there were 7 people who paid to come and see me. I was given a whole hour, which is a heck of a lot for listening to poetry, so I decided to read for 20 minutes and do a Q & A about Jewtown and writing after that.  I was lucky that the people who showed up were a lovely crowd so that made the hour go by quickly. The questions I received were very interesting. Michael Farry was in the audience and asked me why I write. I think I blagged my way through that one! However, I ended up talking about everything from raising Emrys without a religion to alcoholic men in 21st century Ireland.

In a strange event, I was asked by Colm O’Gorman (from Amnesty International) to join him on a panel to discuss immigration and Syria along with a lady, Zlata Filopovic, who fled Bosnia in the 1990s. I more or less took on the role of an audience member on the podium and talked about how I felt as an Irish citizen and how helpless I felt about the crisis. I’m not sure how much good it will do for Jewtown but it was a really interesting experience.

I was hosted by my old family friends in Drumbaragh who wined and dined Rozz and me. Emrys had a great time too! The next day, he went to two events – a book reading and colouring session about farms; and a Green School project from a local primary school.