The Drink Tank262 - Ireland

Travelling to Ireland and not wanting to leave.

By James Bacon
Could not be easier. The time is good for the cheap fare
offers, with Ryan Air bringing prices down with their competitors.
To Dublin, it’s a choice, Ryan Air, BMI and then Aerlingus, with
Aer Lingus frequently doing the best deal. It pays to shop around.
As I write this piece, a flight to Dublin on the Friday before
WexWorlds is just £39.While flights to Octocon, from Manchester
or London Gatwick were £39 all included, although you have
10kilos of carry on, and that’s it. And use the loo before you go.
To be honest for all the mirth and mockery, O’Leary does
what he says, it’s cheap and if you plan a bit, you can find good deals,
from Dublin Airport is a Bus and Train, and if you plan it cleverly,
you can be on the quays, enjoying a pint in the afternoon, the glow
of a heater keeping off the chill, after leaving home in the morning.
I recently travelled home from London using sail and rail.
The 9.10 Virgin trains service from London Euston goes directly to
Holyhead. It’s a very pleasant journey.They stick on a ten car unit as far
as Chester,so there is ample space,and there is nothing nicer than a plug,
a table and the feeling that a coffee or loo is not a mission,but just there.
It’s quite an old fashioned way to travel, yet there is something sedate about it. Passing through Crewe
and then along the north Wales coast, it’s relaxed, unhurried and comfortable. The train stops in Holyhead, the
train station and ferry terminal are one and the same, and you are whisked onto a bus, heavy luggage stowed, and
onboard and again, there is comfort and space and a decent meal if you want it on today’s modern ships, which
are huge.

The route to Fishgaurd from London Paddington is equally nice, with just one change, and you are again
in a ferry port. Rosslare harbour is just south of Wexford, and there are a number of connections. Wexford itself
is rather like the last major town before Rosslare, and it shows, the town has a marked polish and commercial
cosmopolitanism that sets it aside from other similar sized towns, and I believe the tourists help provide this.
Waterford also has a regional airport, so flying in with Aer Arann who fly from quite a few UK based airports,
makes sense.
There is a brand new Science Fiction shop opening in Wexford Alien8, and that is indicative of how
diverse the town actually is.
As I journey on the train, there is a philosophical aspect to a journey like this. Is it part of
the holiday or is it the way to the holiday. I try to set my mindset into one where as soon as I close
the front door, or finish work even, I am on holiday, plan generously accordingly, and try and alleviate
pressure, self-imposed. Even once at Dublin ferry port, you get a free bus into the city centre. The
ferry companies know RyanAir are there and are actually fighting for peoples business. A free shuttle
saves a lot of time and hassle, and also goes from the city centre (Westmoreland st.) back. It’s busy.
Unlike UK train fares, the rail and sail is regional, so it doesn’t matter where you are travelling
from, although the closer to Holyhead, the cheaper, it gets, and it is a set price no matter when
you buy, although you need to buy at least the day beforehand, and if so by phone to Stena line.
Now, you can get a rail ticket that continues down to Wexford. A return normally is €28, one of the things
about Ireland is that Train Fares are quite reasonable, although there is also a bus which takes the same time, and

The Drink Tank 262 - Edited by James Bacon, Layout by Chris Garcia.
Comments? Garcia@computerhistory.org
that is cheaper.
The train journey to Wexford goes along the east coast, following the suburban route, and
is beautiful. Turning inwards a bit, and taking you through the garden of Ireland, and on south. The
line is steeped in history, especially around the time of the war of independence and the civil war.
An armoured train - such as it was - was used in Enniscorthy in 1916, although it may have just been a
commandeered troop train, and the line north of Enniscorthy saw a serious of audacious IRA attacks on the line,
rolling stock and railway, including the spectacular destruction of 3 sets of trains in one instance, during the Civil
War.
The stations and junctions where these incidents occurred, can be found, but only if you
know them, and today the trains are new, streamlined, but with 14 tables in each carriage, with
decent seats, meaning that some 52 passengers can sit in decent comfort, and all with Plugs.
Dublin as a city centre, is not a huge city. It is easily navigable by foot, and the few attractions on the
outskirts are reasonably accessible by bus or tram. The suburban landscape is quite the unplanned, sprawl that
planners will claim they exist to ensure doesn’t occur, and yet, when one looks at Dublin, the plan may have gone
astray.
Wexford, is a beautiful town, and once in the town, everything is within easy reach by foot.
The town is blessed with some excellent hotels, Whites, Talbots and The Riverbank, all offering deals to
the literary traveller, and offering a level of service and comfort that is refreshingly good.
A con such as Octocon in Dublin, means that one can stay at any hotel, although there is an urge to stay
at the Con Hotel, where you are at the hub of the excitement. In Wexford, the nature of a festival means that
there is a more relaxed programme and therefore no matter where you stay, you are close to its goings on, and
this means that there is no rush.
The idyllic image of a relaxed, lush green land, with a friendly people, despite how cynical I may feel, is
deserved. There is no doubting that a bowl of thick locally sourced chowder, in any of the pubs in Wexford,
washed down with a creamy Guinness is unbeatable.Warm fresh brown soda bread and butter as it was intended,
full of flavour and taste, conjur up the realistic image of the moments in between the literary feast.
Ireland is Blessed somewhat, with its authors and creators. For twenty years now, there have been
continous conventions, in Dublin, and the loyalty, hard work and commitment of local authors is part of that
success. In Wexford likewise, there is Eoin Colfer famed children’s author, who is terribly entertaining and really
quite good fun, and obviously a master of the ‘two levels’ of humour, Nick Roche a IDW transformers artist, who
at the moment is the Republics most eminent practitioner in the industry, and Herbie Brennan who lives but
a short Journey away, who frequently masters the New York Times best sellers list. It’s a bit mad. You sit having
a laugh, in a beautiful small town, and see these brilliant creative geniuses and it’s hard to contemplate that they
have sold millions upon millions of books and comics.
The there are the Dubliners, Oisin McGann, Michael Carroll, Sarah Rees Brenann, who between them
represent a number of genres, and
whose youth and vibrancy can be felt
strongly.And then from various counties,
there are Kate Thompson, John Vaughan
and Maura McHugh, all travelling along
the spokes of a wheel, to the science
fictional and fantasy hub that for one
weekend is Wexford. With experts
indigenous and travellers from abroad,
making up the remainder of the list, its a
hard thing to do everyone justice.
Lucky is not good enough to
describe the situation, pretty brilliant
does a better job.
WexWorlds
by Festival Curator and Editor James Bacon.
Photos by Filip Naum and Arek Wnuk
WexWorld’s first Sci Fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival held in Wexford, a beautiful small town of 20,000
people, that is situated on the south east corner, of the island of-Ireland was a bit of a success, that exceeded my
expectations.The festival was the brain child of Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer and he also inputted ideas, desires
and suggestions into the mix.
Eoin worked with Elizabeth Whyte, director of The Wexford Arts Centre to create the and I was then
asked, to get involved and help, and was given the pleasant title of Curator. A nice title which Chris already
possesses.
Eoin Colfer is a science fiction fan and reader although he doesn’t go on about it, having read quite a bit,
especially Phillip K. Dick and also liking movies of an SFnal nature, stating that Bladerunner is one of his favourite
movies. Interesting, as of course, like many fans, he likes the idea of reality and identity and what is tangibly real,
although he is careful, I suspect to ensure his own works are never derivative and one can see when he is in
action, giving talks to 600 school children or a crowded room of adults, that the basis for his fiction is in his own
life experiences, and how he has been able to capture them with a wry cynical smile, and repackage them for
readers, in a fantastical setting.
There are scared looks in the rooms, when he starts to mention that characters are based somewhat
on people, as a realisation crosses many a face, with either horror or pleasure, that they may be the genesis of
something wonderful or nasty.
Because a festival is spread over the whole town, with activities and events in a variety of places, three
bookshops, three hotels, a bona fide Art Gallery, two goth clothes shops, the town theatre/hall, the town library
and the Wexford Arts Centre, it forces people to get out and look around, and also allows the festival to create
focal points, while programming a relaxed schedule, that allows for movement.
Last year we had Cirque Du Freak author Darren Shan, Herbie Brennan author of the Faerie Wars, ,
Paul J Holden, Judge Dredd comic artist for 2000 AD and Garth Ennis written Happy Valley. Nick Roche, Comic
Artist for Transformers, Oisin McGann, Author of Small minded Giants, Strangled Silence, Sarah Rees Brennan,
author of The Demon’s Lexicon, Michael Carroll, 2000 AD comic writer
and author of the The New Heroes series and Robert Curley, Writer
on Freakshow comic and comic book publisher for Atomic Diner.
Quite a varied and eclectic bunch, and let’s be honest, quite a superb
assortment, which I am grateful for and this year we have new author
joining us, including Kate Thompson, who seems to have won every
award in book.
My favourite moments were Dr Emma J. Kings Liquid Nitrogen
talk and instant Ice Cream session, I just love the excitement as the
experiments took place, the smashing of a frozen apple with a hammer,
and how with fund we can help children enjoy and learn.

I really enjoyed a talk by Eoin and Andrew Donkin about

the mechanics of comics, and something I think that should be seen
again, elsewhere. Andrew had a whole presentation, which went into
details of the creation of the Artemis Fowl comics, and both men
know their work. Eoin and Andrew had produced, free of charge,
for all present an eight page comic, entitled The Last Crusade
through water and fire. A mix of legend and mythology as well as
a beautiful twist in time. The comic was drawn by Giovanni Rigano,
so essentially the Artemis Fowl team did a free comic, and it was produced to the highest of standards.
You just cannot beat duct tape, plastic piping and foam, for shutting children up, yes the light sabre
shenanigans was very popular. Especially exciting was the more violent football jersey wearing kid who decided
he was going to single handedly murder everyone, I was impressed with his energy.
The big show of Saturday was Darren Shan and Eoin Colfer in conversation. This was Darren’s
idea, he thought they could entertain by having a more informal conversation, and he was dead right,
they had the audience in stitches of laughter, and he was very insightful about his questions. They
both read some, and it was a great ‘discussion’ the two of them are very funny, Eoin has the ability of a
stand up comedian, and paired with Darren it was great laugh out loud laughter. Then they signed and
signed and signed, long never ending queues. All types of books were signed, it was pretty awesome.
Caca Millis Cabaret is a regular light entertainment evening at the arts centre; first off we had the hostess,
looking French signing Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf.Then we had a belly dancer with a sword,Alexandra Drafilova
from the Khelashi Dancers, it was, well, we had to stop men and women running to the stage to be fascinated.
Local musician, on the acoustic guitar, Paul Creane was next, with Seamus, on mouth organ
and occasional guitar accompaniment, Sarah Rees Brennan made everyone laugh with a short
reading from her, book, and then a reading by Oran Ryan, one that was full of metaphor and insight,
followed by some really great poetry readings (yes, I said that) by Patrick Chapman, I especially
liked Darwins Vampire, Saint Dracula (which had everyone pissing themselves laughing) and his
reading of his title poem, from his book A shopping Mall on Mars, was very science fictional.
But then, there was something really rare and delightful. Eoin Colfer had said a few times
during the day that he would be reading something that he had never read out loud before,
something that most people did not even know about, something that he could never read to kids.
And so, he appeared on stage, with a book of crime stories, set deeply hidden away in dark pages about Dublin,
he read a story he had written.This was not the Eoin Colfer we know.This was a different dark, Irvine Welsh sort
of author, writing about track suited gueriers, a crime boss, and inner city life, but with a streak of black humour
that was impressive. There was a batman reference in the story, which drove the gathered crowd, who had been
guffawing and laughing to cheering and it was very good, violent, dark, full of vulgarity and abuse and dublinisms.
More music, Jacques Brel’s the Port of Amsterdam, and some amazing footage by a
local teenager Chris O’Neil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs who was on
stage, and due to the baying of the crowd, was forced to endure an encore and replaying.
Then, as things wound up, we had a humorous clip, and it went dark and quiet, and then we saw a man in
an attic, scurrying nearly, being pursued, and a real hush befall the venue, and we say Rick Deckard, slip and fall, and
grip to a girder for dear life, and as Roy Batty saved his live a real tingle ran through the audience, and then, we all
watched, and some even cried, as we watched what must be the best science fictional movie moment of all time.
No humour, no post modern ironic bull, no laughs, just the words as they were meant to be seen.
Not much could follow that, really, and the night shortly drew to a close.
Eoin again was involved in discussions about turning books, into visual imagery, whether it be comics, or
illustrations accompanying a book, or the covers. All the authors attended a relaxed coffee meet and greet in
one of the book shops, where people just walked up and talked about their work, in a very informal and chilled
way.
Overall, the weekend went very well. A departure from conventions, yet with many good similarities,
and the majority of the items free of charge, a format allows people to pop in specifically and enjoy something,
without committing to a whole weekend, while those who encamped were able to get to everything.
The relaxed and genial atmosphere, and no stress attitude, that is an event in Ireland also came across
well, to those who had travelled from near and afar.
This year already there have been a number of efforts to improve, where we would like to and capitalise
on what went well. There will now be a Bazaar in a local Hall, and we hope to have life sized movie props set up,
along with members of the Emerald Garrison, an Iris Star Wars costuming group and Cosplayers, from a local,
newly established Anime and Manga Club. That is
not the only thing newly established, a new shop
Alien8 will be launching over the weekend.
A zombie walk and art competition to join
our short story one is in the offing, and as well
as science fun, this time with Chaotic Chemicals
from Doctor Emma, and also her ‘Big Bangs’, we
also have medical mayhem from Dr Heidi, who will
be talking about Poisons, Plagues and Pestilence
and about how we may just find ourselves with a
plague that zombifies people and what we should
do.
Sick bags will be issued out to all children
as they enter, as a reminder that it’s OK to feel
horrified.

For more details, check out www.wexworldsfesti

val.com
All wexworlds images are copyrighted to ©Filip
Naum 2009 and ©Arek Wnuk 2009 who
have photographed Wexworlds 2009 on
assignment from the Wexford`s Arts Centre.