Our day 1 report comes from Liz McManus:
Wednesday the 4th June 2014
5am, Dublin airport, Here we are
bleary-eyed and decidedly not bushy-tailed: six writers and Valerie, our
intrepid guide, setting out on our great adventure. Bill is arriving separately via Amsterdam. Three
hours later we are negotiating a taxi, gathering up our bags and discussing the
burning question as we travel to our hotel : to rehearse or not to rehearse. In the end some do and others are already word
perfect and don’t need to but we all scrub up well for our big night at the Irish
embassy.
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| Ambassador Bobby McDonagh |
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| Our Italian sister, Federica Sgaggio |
And what a night it is! The embassy is housed in a stunningly
beautiful building, the Villa Spada, which used to be the Irish embassy to the Vatican but has
been put to good use as the Irish embassy to Italy. The Ambassador and his wife
overwhelm us with hospitality. The guests are a mixture of academics, arts
practitioners, business people and old friends like John McCourt who runs the
excellent James Joyce School in Trieste.
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| Sarah Cooney, Second Secretary, William Wall, writer, Valerie Bistany, Director of the Irish Writers' Centre |
We all read magnificently as the
only the Magnificent Seven can, The audience clap. Valerie opens proceedings
with a neat explanation of what the IILE is all about, Federica - looking like a film star from La Dolce
Vita – gives an emotionally charged speech and then we all retire happily onto
the terrace to drink and talk into the night.
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| Writer Mia Gallagher in the Villa Spada |
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| Liz McManus, reading at the Villa Spada |
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