To the sweet-voiced sounds of folk band Fiddle ’n Drum, Mayflower Bookshop’s new location, Mayflower XTRA, slowly filled up for our St. Patrick’s Day Event. The band, consisting of Martijn Anker (guitar, vocals) Marco van der Laan (bass, vocals), Iris Schmidt (tin whistle, bodhran) and Herrick Schaink (fiddle, vocals), brought the enthusiastic audience into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit for half an hour, when Dr. Wim Tigges’ talk on Irish literature in a nutshell began.
Dr. Tigges, fluent and enthusiastic as ever, began by telling us with what an impossible task any lecturer is faced when asked to summarize Irish literature in just one hour. But he succeeded magnificently in this Herculean task as he took us on a journey of both Irish literature and history, and captivated us by excerpts from novels and poems, not shunning a few poems in original Irish! A renewed acquaintance for some, and a discovery for others, with Irish poets and authors as Eavan Boland and Samuel Beckett, and as any talk on Irish literature cannot pass over James Joyce, the latter was not forgotten.
His mesmerizing talk was followed up by an informal get-together while Fiddle ‘n Drum[1] treated us to another hour of swinging folk music and local restaurant ‘In den Bierbengel’[2] served us delicious Irish snacks.
An event to remember! Ar do shláinte!
[1] Bookings: fiddlendrum@gmail.com
[2] Reservations: indenbierbengel@gmail.com
