Return of the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing a ‘huge success’

The organisers of the 2022 Immrama Festival of Travel Writing have declared the return of the festival for the first time since 2019 a ‘huge success’.

The festival took place in Lismore from Thursday, June 16th to 19th and welcomed a variety of guests who shared tales of travel and stories of unusual adventures.

Famous for gathering intrepid travellers and adventures, the festival once again got to celebrate travel with visiting speakers. Taking place in Lismore from Thursday, June 16th to 19th, the festival equally brought a boost to the local economy.

Discussing the weekend’s success, one of the organisers Edward Lynch said, “We are thrilled to have Immrama return and to have hosted a hugely successful festi

val weekend. We had lots of full houses with all other events at 90% audience capacity and we are delighted to have welcomed back many ‘old faces’ and lots of ‘new’ faces to the festival. Audience members travelled from across the country with some international visitors attending too.

We’re looking forward to planning our 2023 event, which will be the 20th anniversary of our first festival.”

VARIED LINE-UP

First up for the 2022 event was Des Ekin, who talked about Ireland’s Pirate Trail detailing 30 true-life pirate stories; best-selling author of An Unsung Hero, the biography of explorer Tom Crean, discussed Ireland’s role in Polar exploration – Michael Smith; Historian Donald Brady focussed on Temple Lane - Mary Isabel

Leslie (1899–1978), the daughter of John Herbert Leslie, Dean of Lismore (1930-34) sharing the story of her fascinating life and career; one of the founding members of the music group De Dannan with whom he toured extensively in Europe, Canada and the US and has recorded several albums Charlie Pigott has the audience almost dancing in the aisles!

On Saturday afternoon the theme of travel for work continued as Ralph Riegel the southern correspondent for Independent Newspapers took to the stage. The author of ten books - five were bestsellers including the No 1 best-seller ‘My Brother Jason’ with Gill Books, which featured in TV documentaries with CBS in the US and VirginMedia in Ireland, had the audience in the

palm of his hand.

Travel writer Thom Breathnach discussed the paradox of sustainable travel and social media’s current travel trends to a full house and on Saturday evening journalist, broadcaster and barman Billy Keane shared hilarious tales of travel from inside of and outside of his head.

Bringing the festival to a close on Sunday morning with a traditional Literary Breakfast at Lismore Golf Club Turtle Bunbury who shared insights into the lives of ‘Women of Munster - The Adventures Lola Montez, Eliza Lynch and Nellie Cashman’ to a full house.

2023 is already being looked forward to - for more details on the Immrama Festival see www. LismoreImmrama.com