THE West Cork Literary Festival came to a dramatic conclusion when a SatNav malfunction sent the festival’s closing night special guest on a cross-country race to get to Bantry.
Colm Tóibín, author of books including Brooklyn, The Master, and his new work Long Island, was the star attraction on the closing night of what was a hugely successful festival.
However, Tóibín was almost a no-show after following route directions through his car’s satellite navigation.
‘We had quite a drama. Colm was coming from Galway, and he typed in Bantry to his SatNav, but it somehow ended up sending him in the wrong direction through Mallow,’ said a spokeswoman for the West Cork Literary Festival.
‘Colm is well known for being punctual, and his agent was with us and didn’t know what had gone wrong. No one knew where he was as he couldn’t take the call while driving.’
To add to the drama, Colm’s car then needed to be recharged due to the extra distance travelling off-route.
A sold-out crowd in the Maritime Hotel was unaware of the drama that was unfolding behind the scenes as West Cork Festival staff tried to locate their missing star.
Thankfully, in this particular drama there was a happy ending, as Colm arrived in Bantry at just two minutes past his start-time of 8.30pm, and after quickly composing himself, had the crowd spellbound five minutes later in his conversation with fellow-author Sinéad Gleeson.
This year’s West Cork Literary Festival was a huge success, with more sellout events than ever before.
‘Audiences have responded marvellously to the line-up at this year’s West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry and attendances were back to, and exceeding, pre-pandemic levels,’ said festival director, Eimear O’Herlihy.
‘There was a real sense of occasion and excitement around the festival with audiences turning out in what looks like record numbers to support writers.’
The West Cork Literary Festival is part of West Cork Music Festival, which also includes the West Cork Chamber Music festival and the Masters of Tradition Festival. The three festivals are now a vital tourism generator for Bantry, generating a combined €3.8m in 2023 and more than €2m on accommodation, catering, and local services.
Several shows in the Literary Festival were sold out this year, including Eoin Warner’s appearance at Whiddy Island, and the sellout shows in the Maritime Hotel featuring David Nicholls and Anne Enright, Paul Lynch, Colm Tóibín, and Miriam Margolyes.
Author Paul Lynch after his appearance at the West Cork Literary Festival with (from left) RTÉ duo Cathy Halloran and Teresa Mannion, her sister Mary Mannion who lives outside Glengarriff, and Dr Jez Gibson from Kinsale.
And it seems the admiration was reciprocal. Miriam Morgolyes took in lunch in Ahakista with her good friend Graham Norton. She also enjoyed lunch in Nico’s in Schull as well as a tour around Sheep’s Head.
Indeed it’s believed she was so smitten that she spoke of an interest in property in West Cork.
Tickets are selling fast for this year’s Masters of Tradition, which takes place from August 21st to 25th in Bantry.
