moorereppion

Aside from our presentation on Saturday we did get the chance to enjoy a few other Dracula related events over our weekend in Dublin.

After checking into our hotel on Friday, we met up with our good friends Brian J. Showers and Tinka Bechert and enjoyed a very nice (and incredibly filling) Japanese meal in their company.

Afterwards we all staggered over to the Irish Film Insitute for a screening of F.W. Munarau’s 1922 silent masterpiece Nosferatu.

It was a heavily restored cut with lots of shots and scenes which I don’t think I had ever seen before (I definitely don’t remember the Hyena…). The viewing experience was further enhanced by a live score provided by  Godspeed You Black Emperor-esque Dublin group 3epkano who I am now definitely a fan of.

A few drinks in the bar afterwards rounded the evening off nicely and we headed to bed with hardly any anxiety about the following afternoon’s presentation.

Saturday morning came and we had the rare experience of  being able to actually have a lie-in in a hotel.  We met up for lunch with Dublin literary Svengali  Pádraig Ó Méalóid, his lady wife the lovely Deirdre and writing machine (and designated photographer) Catie Murphy.  I was still too full of hotel buffet breakfast to actually eat anything (you’ve got to get your money’s worth!) but everyone else seemed to really enjoy their food.

Once the talk was done we found our chum Danielle Lavigne lurking in the Writer’s Museum hallway – she’d had a hard time finding the venue and had only just arrived.  She had a packet of chocolate digestives with her though so all was immediately forgiven. Catie had to immediately run off and catch a train so we said our thanks and goodbyes and, after a brief detour to visit Chapters Bookstore, headed to the pub.  Special mention has to go to P-con’s own Peter McClean who missed the talk but drove all the way to Dublin and then bought us a pint (well, me a pint and Leah a lemonade). What a guy!

After a pleasant afternoon of talking rubbish intelligent conversation with Pádraig, Deirdre and Mr. Brian Nisbet, Leah and I headed off for an Indian meal in the company of Mr. Showers, Ms. Bechert, Kim Newman, Maura McHugh, Albert Power and Jonathan Barry. This, somewhat inevitably, led to us all (with the exception of Mr. Power) heading to the pub for a last drink.

Sunday morning saw Brian J. Showers hosting a panel discussion at the IFI on the subject of… well, Dracula naturally. The panel actually went so well that it managed to overrun without anyone noticing (which is pretty much unprecedented in my experience) .

Mr.  Newman was scheduled to give a talk at 2:45 pm on Dracula in Film but, sadly, we had to run off and catch the airport bus at half past two.

We arrived home with only two regrets about the weekend; the first being the usual inability to get to spend enough time with everyone and the second that we didn’t get to see any other vampire films or events while we were over.

If you’re going to be in or around Dublin any time this month, check the One City, One Book website and see what’s on. You won’t be disappointed.