Coming Home

Right, I'd better 'fess up straight away that this was taken yesterday - 10.30pm so almost today! Driving home after an amazing night at the Literary Festival we just had to pull into the pier to admire the sky and there was a sail border out enjoying the tranquility.

What an evening. First up Dr Emily Wilson and her translation of The Odyssey. She was introduced as an academic, a classicist, a feminist, a Grecophile and she just radiated intelligence and gave thundering readings of her work  and erudite answers to the interview. The translation is not a feminist translation but a translation by a woman who is a feminist and there's a difference I think, for she has viewed and sometimes interpreted things differently. She gave a good example:  upon Odysseus' homecoming and after the suitors are all slaughtered (are you with me??) the traditional translations refer to subsequent slaughter of the maid servants, retribution for their being sluts and harlots for having entertained and thus colluded with the suitors. She points out they were not maid servants but slaves and they would have been gifted to the suitors and raped. Their fate was the same though. Fascinating and another book to read!

Then it was the young couple behind the West Cork podcast:  Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde. The room was packed to capacity - around 500 people and what an excellent evening it was conducted with dignity and poise by Justine McCarthy of the Irish Times.The story for those who don't know it and it seems odd that no one shouldn't for it has been such a major elephant here for so many years: in 1996 Sophie Toscan de Plantier was murdered at her holiday home just outside Schull, two days before Christmas. The investigation was seriously bungled - the local Gardai had never had to cope with anything like this before and it took the coroner 9 hours to get down from Dublin by which time most forensic evidence has been compromised. There are tales of bribery, perjury , threats and general confusion and mayhem. There has always been one suspect, Ian Bailey, who has been taken to court twice, and is shortly to be tried in France by proxy. The unfortunate thing about Ian Bailey is that he is a showman and just loves the attention although he has always insisted he is innocent. He was there last night - not sitting down before it kicked off but standing by those collecting the tickets, almost as though he was meeting and greeting. Anyway, the interview with the two journalist was conducted admirably - unsensational, pertinent and verty fair, much as their incredibly thorough and unbiased investigation has tried to be. Wisely there were no questions from the floor but we were all left with much still to ponder on. 

It's all go for we are out again tonight first for supper and then on to Schull workhouse, or the gaunt and rather sinister remains of it, where there is a performance of Anáil na Beatha. This is part of the events surrounding a major exhibition which has just opened in Skibbereen called Coming Home: Art & the Great Hunger. It doesn't start until 9.30pm and is a promenade performance. We have been told to bring sensible shoes, anti-midge stuff and a cushion!

Just time for (another) swim before we go.