After The Poetry Reading, The City Hall

Something French about this guy, as he appears here. Reminds me of the kind of face you'd see in a photo by Robert Doisneau or Cartier-Bresson.

The reading was held this afternoon in the room just behind him. It didn't last long. We each got to read only two poems; really it was a kind of birthday celebration for my publisher's poetry press, Salmon Poetry, which is 25 years old. The reading was just a small part of the three-day Book Festival, so there were lots of other things going on in the same general area. Just across the floor in the other wing (similar to a transept in a squarish church) there was another reading, so there were echoes competing for attention, a bit like duelling priests' sermons.

I was about to head off afterwards, but, since I had the camera with me (of course) I thought I'd do a little casual stalking. Here's a couple more shots from inside and outside this impressive building, erected in 1779:
THE RIVAL READING. A famous Irish poet has just entered with his wife. Guess who (it's not Heaney).
FRONT DOOR REFLECTIONS

The last time I came here was to attend, of all things, a meeting of the Dublin City Council, which was open to the public. I had been invited by one of the Labour councillors who was sympathetic to my desire to retain a plaque recently erected, illegally, to a fictitious character, Fr. Pat Noise. It's a long story, but if anyone's interested I wrote about it on my other blog, LIGHTBOX.

Later, before heading home, I visited that terrace in Blackrock overlooking the sea, to see what the clouds were up to. QUITE A LOT, as it happened.