Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures

Stalls, food from around the world, dancing, music, bands, displays, shows, demonstrations, and up to 22,000 people all gathered in my hometown for a great weekend. If you didn’t make it this year, then put it on your calendar for 2011 because it seems to get bigger and better every time.

While I was growing up in this seaside town I would have said that nothing interesting ever happened apart from the twice-daily sailings out of the harbour. We went to Dublin city centre for a bit of life: music, theatre, good food, and my mother’s favourite occupation, shopping. Well, now we’ve no reason to stray any longer as the world has come to sit on our doorstep.

When I think back to my angst ridden teenage years, getting out of Dún Laoghaire was my main preoccupation. I finally managed it in 1974 and settled near London with absolutely no intention of ever returning, well except for the annual pilgrimage home in the summer rain. Things began to change here, slowly, and over time the roads got better, shops became more cosmopolitan, the dining experience became delightfully epicurean, and all self-respecting designers showcased their latest creations along Grafton Street and Henry Street.

I came home for a family wedding in 1990 and realised that I hadn’t had such a good time in years so back I went, put my home up for sale and became a returning emigrant after sixteen long years away. It took quite a while to get used to madcap Irish drivers who thought nothing of cutting me off on the inside, something that had never happened in law-abiding Sussex. And I quickly realised that I had become a stickler for time: 9am meant 9am in my book but back in the land where god had made tons of time to go around, 9am was a mere guideline to be considered rather than strictly adhered to. My blood pressure suffered quite a bit in the early years but I learned to calm down and to accommodate the vagaries of Irish timekeeping and how to – mostly - avoid inventive drivers looking for a shortcut. And now, the world now comes to me with this wonderful festival of world cultures taking place but a mile from my home. Even the rain held off and everyone had a grand old time.