Stanley Tucci’s subplot adds to the fun of Dingle Literary Festival

Blame the surprising news that came late Friday evening. Stanley Tucci was in town attending festival events.

Tucci is one of the great multi-hyphenates of our time. Actor-writer, gourmet-presenter, fashion plate-cocktail mixer: the man’s talents are extremely diverse, and the combination of all those attributes in one attractive package makes him kind of the ideal idea of ​​a male companion, even if he does bump into her at the time. In a movie with Saoirse Ronan.

The faint sound heard across Ireland when the news broke last Friday was the sigh of women across the country as they looked up from the notification, saw their husbands and partners spraying bits of Tayto all over a tattered GAP hoodie, and Thought she was sharing it. An island with Il Tucci.

The man has won an Olympic medal for wearing a competitive scarf and a Nobel Prize for truffle praise.

So last Saturday morning there was interest in Dingle’s The Little Cheese Shop as a possible call to the great man. No sign of that, although I did learn a little more about the difference between smoked gubbins and smoked durus.

It is one of the advantages of the Dingle Literature Festival that a visit to the cheese shop can be combined so successfully with the events. Dingle is the perfect size for this type of festival, with some large-scale venues like the Ann Dessert Institute of Irish Spirituality and Culture at the top of the town near the church, and more intimate venues like Dick Mac’s Pub. Road from the church.

(The church is so central because for a while on Saturday, it looked like the best-dressed festival crowd ever was marching en dessert, until it became clear they were going to a wedding. Were staying.)

highlight? Kevin Barrie, once of this parish, was in his usual form on Saturday afternoon, while Noel O’Regan impressed many as he read his first novel. Given the proximity of the Gaeltacht, it was no surprise to hear Dáithí Dí Mórdha and Dara Ó Cnéideh give speeches in the state’s first official language.

For individual highlights, Max Porter’s reading early Saturday was a great experience. I am studying from shyHis new book, Porter, received sensitive musical support from Aoife Granville and Deirdre Granville and charmed the packed audience with his presentation before settling in for an insightful interview with Bláthín Mac Donnell – all this in the chapel of those famous Harry Clarke Was under windows surveillance. Of a dessert.

Your correspondent also got his man. In the very back row at the Porter event, black coat collar turned up – that’s all – plain woolen hat resting on lap, attentive, admiring, bald: Stanley Tucci, close enough to touch, let alone Respected enough to.