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The Dublin Writers Festival will take place from Wednesday 11th to Sunday 15th June inclusive where else but in down and dirty Dublin - should I make that 100 miles round trip to listen to the waffle ?

Ok I'm still seething over that Dublin goal, clearly taken in the square, that spelled the beginning of the end for Louth last weekend in Croke Park - although admittedly the end was never going to remain dyslexic for long - that isn't a valid reason not to whinge about this fine event nor an intentional insensitive remark about dyslexics, it's just.. Dublin ? - do I really have to!

Over those four days next week, the jackeens will host over 40 Irish and international writers and poets, journalists, political commentators, and for some reason lawyers for a series of readings, discussions, debates and public interviews. According to the press release, the Festival will explore the themes such as war, loss, national identity, Irish values, childhood, crime, and the art of the short story.

The 2008 line-up includes JP Donleavey, Tom Stoppard, Anne Enright, Ivana Bacik, Roy Foster, Alan Gilsenan and that particularly idiotic and annoying home-bread ginger man David McWilliams. Ginger is apparently a media sensation that came to collective attention pontificating on that most precise and exact science - future economics - He has written authoritatively about the economic and cultrual developments in Ireland. Maybe a bit strange then that even he isn't lined up to discuss the great white elephant in the room - electronic literature - or indeed the future of the book - of course even with Ginger there isn't any actual authorities about to enlist in a discussion. That could be one reason for the topics absence or omission the other of course could be that even the organizers don't know anything about it.

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