My cycle along the Waterford Greenway – see previous post – was inspired by my visit to the Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing where I had been asked to give a talk. A more friendlier and welcoming bunch of people it would be hard to find and I had a wonderful weekend in the beautiful town of Lismore – home to the Duke of Devonshire’s Irish castle – listening to others (including Terry Waite) talk about their own books. The town and surrounding area were picture perfect under an almost continuously blue sky. I had always imagined Ireland to be a run-down version of Britain. How wrong could I have been! The house at the end of the cobbled passage is, I understand, that of fellow cyclist and author Dervla Murphy, one of the inspirations for creating the festival some fifteen years ago. Put the event in your diary for 2018 as it is well worth the effort of travelling there. The good weather can’t be guaranteed but I’m sure the locals will be just as cheerful irrespective of what the sky throws at them…