NEARLY half a million, in funding has now been raised for the Irish presence at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. When these pages were last in touch with the organisers, it remained a bit of a mystery where this, funding was going to come from, and whether it would come even close to what was needed.

This week, however, Lard Cassidy, organiser of the Irish Initiative at Frankfurt, told SFTA that he was "extremely, pleased with the way things, have turned out". As far as funding was concerned Cassidy said "we need a certain portion more, but we are getting close to what we require". "Cross checking" was the reason it was not yet possible to share any details of, this new felicitous situation, with SF this week. Full details of all the sponsors on board to date will, however, be released next Tuesday.