The Dingle Literature Festival went off smoothly this weekend, with entertaining interviews, innovative venues, and informative readings. Plenty to entertain booklovers, both local and residential.
Why then was your correspondent staking out a small cheese shop on Grey’s Lane in the town last Saturday afternoon?
Blame the surprise news that broke late on Friday evening. Stanley Tucci was in town and attending festival events.
Stanley Tucci was one of the visitors enjoying Dingle Literary Festival which ran from Friday to Sunday. File picture: Andres Poveda
Tucci is one of the great multi-hyphenates of our time. Actor-writer, gourmet-presenter, fashion plate-cocktail mixer: The man’s talents are annoyingly diverse, and the combination of all those attributes in one dapper package makes him a kind of platonic idea of a male companion, even if he bumped off Saoirse Ronan in a film that one time.
The low hum heard throughout Ireland when this news emerged last Friday was the sigh emanating from women all over the country as they glanced up from the notification, saw their husbands and partners sprinkle Tayto crumbs all over a misshapen GAP hoodie, and considered they were sharing an island with Il Tucci.
A personal highlight of this year’s festival for Irish Examiner Books Editor Michael Moynihan was the event with Max Porter. File picture
The man has an Olympic medal for competitive scarf-wearing, and a Nobel prize for truffle appreciation.
Hence the interest in The Little Cheese Shop of Dingle last Saturday morning as a likely port of call for the great man. No sign of him, though I did learn a little more about the difference between Smoked Gubbeen and Smoked Durrus.
It’s one of the advantages of the Dingle Literature Festival that a trip to the cheese shop can be combined so successfully with the events themselves. Dingle is the perfect size for a festival of this type, with a couple of large-scale venues such as An Díseart Institute of Irish Spirituality and Culture at the top of the town near the church, and more intimate spaces like Dick Mac’s pub across the road from the church.
(The church is so central because for a while on Saturday, it looked like the best-dressed festival crowd of all time was ascending on An Díseart until it became clear that those people were heading to a wedding.)
Thomas Ashmore arriving with books for the 2023 Dingle Literary Festival. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Highlight? Kevin Barry, once of this parish, was his usual inimitable self on the Saturday afternoon, while Noel O’Regan impressed many while reading from his own debut novel. Given the proximity of the Gaeltacht, it was no surprise either to hear Dáithí de Mórdha and Dara Ó Cinnéide give an eloquent hour in the first official language of the State.
For a personal highlight, Max Porter’s reading was a terrific early treat on Saturday. Reading from , his new book, Porter had sensitive musical backing from Aoife Granville and Deirdre Granville and enthralled the packed audience with his delivery before settling down for an insightful interview with Bláithín Mac Donnell — all under the watchful eye of those famous Harry Clarke windows in the chapel of An Díseart.
Your correspondent got his man, too. In the very back row at the Porter event, dark coat collar folded up — just so — plain wool hat resting on the lap, attentive, appreciative, bald: Stanley Tucci, close enough to touch, respected enough to be left alone.
