Kim Phuc Phan Thi & Fergal Keane for Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing 2016

Kim Phuc Phan Thi and Fergal Keane announced as Keynote speakers for Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing 2016

Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972 Kim Phuc Phan Thi along with one of the BBC's most distinguished correspondents and award-winning broadcaster and author Fergal Keane have been announced as the keynote speakers for the 14th annual Immrama Festival of Travel Writing in Lismore, County Waterford this June 16th to 19th.

Kim tells a story like no other. She is an icon of the cry for peace, the unforgettable girl behind the photo running naked from the planes bombing a temple where she and her family had taken refuge during the Vietnam War. Luckily, she escaped her death from napalm to tell her story. Kim will travel to Ireland for the first time to take to the stage at the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing on Saturday, June 18th at 3pm.

Kim will be joined by one of the BBC's most distinguished correspondents and an award-winning broadcaster and author Fergal Keane. Fergal has reported on the major conflicts and also forgotten wars of the modern age. He has been awarded numerous awards and honours including, a BAFTA, the George Orwell prize for literature, the James Cameron Prize and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the US Overseas Press Association, an OBE for his services to journalism. He is also the author of a number of bestselling books. Fergal will take to the podium at Immrama on Saturday June 18th at 8pm.

Launching the 2016 programme was the Mayor of Waterford Councillor John Cummins said, “I am honoured to launch the programme for the fourteeth annual Immrama Festival of Travel Writing. This festival has from its very inception brought some of the biggest names in travel writing and broadcasting to Ireland and with those names it has also brought international audiences and has shone an international spotlight on this beautiful Heritage Town. This is a festival which I believe is like no other in the country, it is forward thinking and global reaching and the 2016 programme is the epitome of this ethos; June 16th to June 19th are going to be a particularly inspiring number of days in Lismore this year.”

On Sunday morning at 8.30am Turtle Bunbury will host the ‘Literary Breakfast’ at Lismore House Hotel. Turtle is a best selling author and award winning historical consultant. He is a co-presenter of the Genealogy Roadshow on RTE and a frequent contributor to radio, print & online media, including National Geographic Traveler, Vogue Living, The World of Interiors, Playboy, The Australian, The Irish Times and The Irish Daily Mail. Turtle’s next book, Around the World in 1847, will be published in September 2016.

The festival will open with a film screening with a racing theme on the evening of Thursday, June 16th when Italian film ‘Palio’ will be screened at Lismore Heritage Centre.

On Friday evening at 8pm author and journalist Peter Murtagh will take to the stage at the Courthouse Theatre. Peter Murtagh is a reporter with The Irish Times. He has held a number of senior positions in the paper over many years, as well as in The Guardian newspaper in London. He is well travelled and has written from many places in Europe as well as Asia, South and Central America and South Africa, occasionally observing places from the vantage point of his motorbike. In 2011 he wrote, with his daughter Natasha, a book about their journey together on Camino de Santiago. He has since walked the Portuguese Camino and the Camino Primitivo.

On the morning of Saturday, June 18 historian Donald Brady will host a free talk on an intriguing piece of local history and author Paul Clements will host a free presentation at the Red Hall.

Family Fun Sunday will take place at the Millennium Park where music and entertainment will be on offer with the Lismore Farmers Market on the castle avenue. Taking the festival to a close on Sunday evening author Jim O’Malley, an environmentalist and long-distance walker will discuss his book – ‘Walking the Munster Blackwater’. While emphasising the historic events that occurred along the course of the river, O’Malley presents the reader with a varied snapshot of the Irish countryside. Encounters with farmers, B&B personnel, publicans, anglers and others are blended with his love of nature and a deeply felt concern for the future of the Blackwater.

The festival has also announced a brand new young travel writer’s competition; this is open to secondary school students all across Ireland. Entrants are asked to submit an 800-word story about their travel experiences.

Full details of the festival schedule for tickets and details on the new travel writing competition at the Immrama Lismore Festival of Travel Writing 2016 see www.lismoreimmrama.com or call (058) 53803.

Guest Post - Devonshire Day 2012: A Wonderful Mother's Day in Lismore

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it coincided with the 9th Annual Devonshire Day held in Lismore Castle, which is the main fundraiser for the annual Immrama Festival of Travel writing. As this year will be the 10th Immrama Festival it's a very special anniversary - watch this space for updates and programme announcements after the launch on April 19th! I just want to share some of the photos of yesterday with you - and link you to previous posts on Devonshire Day which I've blogged about since 2009 - the first Devonshire Day after I started my personal blog in December 2008. Here's my 2010 and 2011 posts on Devonshire Day.

We were blessed with perfect weather yesterday - and we always say St. Carthage our Patron Saint of Lismore is looking down on his own home town with favour. Well, he came from Co. Offaly but we claim him as our own as his name is synonymous with Lismore, whichever one you want - as the Australian Lismore has a St. Carthage's Cathedral also and is our Twin Town, and we have two St. Carthage's - the Church of Ireland Cathedral and the Catholic Church.

The day is a series of five guided walks through the spring gardens of Lismore Castle with the Head Gardener Chris Tull at the helm, and his love and enthusiasm for the gardens shines through all the way - he never flags even after six hours or more, he displays the same humour and passion with the final group as with the first. I should know, as I accompany each group, tasteful in my garish yellow Hi-Viz jacket and carrying my First-Aid kit, just in case anyone decides to take a tumble or keel over - all in the name of "elf'n'safety"! Luckily no-one has needed my services thus far, although a few years ago in particularly vile weather some of the punters nearly came a cropper on the slippery slopes of the lower garden where the mud had churned up into a veritable mire.

The walks are preceded by the piece de resistance - the Devonshire Cream Tea served by the Butlers of the Duke of Devonshire in the Pugin Room - the Ballroom and former Chapel designed by Pugin, the famous designer of Westminster Houses Of Parliament in London. The tea is served on monogrammed china and with full silver service, and is very posh. As two of our sons worked there for years as butlers when they were students we tend to take it for granted, but it is very other-worldly for the visitors. A taste of how the other half (or more like the 1%) live, if you will. And that's a topic for debate another day!

But I digress - back to the tea. The punters are treated to a series of talks during their tea - on the history of the Castle, Lismore, the Pugin connection and the Pugin Room in particular, and then Chris talks about the gardens and during the walkabout he is a mine of information on Joseph Paxton who built the Glasshouses and designed the gardens initially, and then the contemporary influences of the Cavendish family who inaugurated a Sculpture Garden throughout the gardens, with many contemporary artists having permanent exhibits. Eilis O'Connell has a number of pieces, and Antony Gormley is probably the best known with his Man out of Water piece - a mould of his own body on a cold day as Chris tells it! I leave you to judge. Gormley's signature piece is the Angel of the North in Newcastle in England, and his body figures are dotting the English coastline at Crosby near Liverpool.

The Castle Arts Gallery will be open throughout the summer along with the gardens and the ticket entry includes both. Each year there's a different exhibition usually with guest curators, and it is always avant garde and of international renown but not to everyone's taste. So if you're expecting art a-la the National Galleries, you might be disappointed! This is also the first year there was no Sotheby's Irish Sale Preview in Lismore Castle Arts, which is missed by me as I loved it. But that's the downside of the recession, and we have to put up with it. I'm sure it cost someone a fortune to tour with those artworks worth millions.

I met a lady who was here last year and she had the most amazing Aran outfit, which she designed and knitted herself - I was gobsmacked by her skill and tenacity - she had a beret, mittens, cowl, bag and calf-length coat - all in fabulous intricate Aran patterns. You can see the photo here as I took some to send her, and I hope she likes them as much as I did seeing them and meeting her. She's called Agnes and she comes from Waterford.

We see a lot of the same faces year after year as people come from all over Ireland to enjoy this special Spring Preview of the gardens and the unique opportunity to be served tea by the Duke's Butlers! So I hope you enjoy the photos and the post which I'll also post on my personal blog at Dispatches from the Deise. It's been great being a Guest Blogger on the Lismore Immrama Blog - thanks for asking me!

PS - If you want to see the full gallery of photos of Devonshire Day then visit the Lismore Immrama Facebook Page and Like it! Here's the link.

“Travels- Exploration and Endurance”

Recounting and sharing their experiences with the audience on Saturday June 12th are:

Sir Ranulph Fiennes at 3.00 p.m.

Tim Severine at 8.00 p.m.

Saturday Special Tickets available at €40.00, individual tickets available at €25.00 each.