FESTIVAL WEEKEND:Fun-loving literary types will enjoy the Flat Lake festival in Monaghan, while opera buffs will find plenty to amuse them in Lismore. Where are you heading on the bank holiday weekend, writes GEMMA TIPTON
WOULD YOU SWAP Los Angeles for Co Monaghan? How about trading a career in film for raising a family in an eco house, breeding pigs and helping to organise an arts festival in a field? Laura Allen has not only made these choices, she also manages to make them look highly desirable. It helps if the eco house happens to be in the gorgeous grounds of Hilton Park, her ancestral family home (since 1734), and that the festival is the fabulous Flat Lake, now in its fourth year.
“Growing up was wonderful,” says Allen, who was raised at Hilton Park with her brother and sisters Fred, Amelia and Alice. “We had all this space to run around in. We went to the local school so we had friends here, and the weather seemed better then as we were always outdoors.”
Hilton is famous for its trees, and Allen remembers going for walks with her grandfather and being taught to recognise them all. Perhaps that's why she decided to become a gardener. Her attendance at a course in London was interrupted by the filming in Monaghan of The Playboys. "So I came back and got a job on it, then another on Into the West, and I ended up working for Miramax." She says this as if it was a relatively simple thing, but as she ended up responsible for looking after all the company's UK projects, there's a strong hint of an ability to be tough when necessary. After 10 years, however, "I can honestly say I was glad to leave. At Miramax you were working with the top people, very creative people, though Harvey and Bob [Weinstein] had the ultimate say on everything, and they ran it with a heavy hand.
“The writers were wonderful, but there was also such narcissism, often dressed up as conscience. I remember working on Welcome to Sarajevo with Woody Harrelson. He has a reputation for being environmentally aware and very into green issues, but amidst all the devastation in Sarajevo he insisted on having organic avocados flown in from the US, and no one questioned it.”
One of the “wonderful writers”, was Kevin Allen. “I had seen Kevin at a Miramax party in London. He had come in on crutches, and I thought he was arrogant, and I decided I didn’t like him.” And if you think that sounds like the beginning of the ideal romance, you’re right. A couple of years later, the pair found themselves sitting together at an LA dinner, and Laura discovered “he wasn’t like I imagined him at all. The rest of the guests were the usual crowd of the beautiful actress, the producer trying to sleep with the actress, the agent trying to nail the actress, and Kevin and I were looking at them all, and realised how much we had in common.”
So, how did she drag Kevin back to Monaghan? “He dragged me. At first we thought LA was a great place to raise kids, all the sunshine, the big houses, but we got tired of the fake people, and wanted to be somewhere different. I had always thought I’d come back home some day, but Kevin is a person who seizes the moment and gets things done.”
Kevin Allen designed the couple’s house, which they share with their four children, Gracie (9), Nell (seven), Hywel (five) and Iris (four).
His position as an outsider also has its advantages. Free from the Irish cultural associations to do with "the big house", he just got on with getting to know people and fitting in, a condition Lucy gently envies. "His accent doesn't place him. I remember at school being called 'the rat of the mansion', and you feel embarrassed about where you come from. I don't think my family had a bad record, but you never feel as if you're quite the same as everyone. And as a child you really want to fit in." Together with local writer Pat McCabe, Kevin Allen's brainchild was the Flat Lake festival. Helped by enthusiasm, talent and family connections – Allen's brother is actor Keith Allen, and his niece is singer Lily – the festival has gone from strength to strength with its eclectic line-up. "It comes from a love of old agricultural fairs, show bands, festivals, music, literature – all in one. Kevin goes off into his shed, and comes back saying 'Okay, I've got Lily to do this . . . I've got Crystal Swing, I've got Dominic West', and it all seems sort of effortless. But it is an immense amount of work." This year, Lily is singing She Drinks Tequila with Crystal Swing. There is a showband night, with country and western music on Sunday. Jennifer Johnson and Anne Enright are coming, plus Jack L and Mundy. There will be a poetry slam, an art car boot sale, and plenty more. It sounds like a cross between an 18th-century salon, in a big field with some farm machinery and a barbecue. "It shows there's an appetite for high culture, alongside low culture, so long as it's presented as open to everyone, and great fun," says Laura. "Keith comes every year, and always does something different. He's incredible, he has such energy, and I really admire him. I admire all of them, they can just about do anything. We're so different [the Maddens and the Allens] but hopefully our differences are a good match."
The Flat Lake Festival is on Thursday to Sunday, June 4th-6th, theflatlakefestival.com
Opera, art, pints and pottery
WHEN TOUR BUSES come into the west Waterford town of Lismore, they always stop at the castle, the Irish home of the dukes of Devonshire. One wing of the neo-Gothic extravaganza is open to the public as a contemporary art gallery, and you can stroll around the gorgeous gardens and feel as if you’ve stepped into another world. Stepping back out into reality again, most tourists get straight back on to the bus, which is a shame, because Lismore is well worth a closer look.
First up, there’s the beauty of the surrounding countryside, which is a terrific setting for Immrama, the annual travel-writing festival. Now in its eighth year, the festival brings the world to Lismore through talks and workshops given by travel writers including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Tim Severin, Paul Clements and Jan Morris. A new documentary on local resident, travel writer Dervla Murphy, is also premiering during the festival, which runs on June 10th to 13th. It’s lots of fun, not least for the chats in the pubs afterwards, as people come to listen, meet, learn and dream of far-off places.
Artists and artisans abound in Lismore. Lismore Castle Arts (lismorecastlearts.ie) has one major exhibition per year.
This year it’s a solo show by Irish artist Gerard Byrne. Ceramic artist Jane Jermyn “came by accident in 2003 and never left”. People travel from far and wide to come to Jonathan Ackroyd’s jewellery workshop (058-53888).
While I was there, lusting over an emerald and platinum piece, a woman came in having driven from Dublin to choose her engagement ring. In Simon Dunn’s antique shop, where it’s hard to leave without picking up a little something or other, Dunn tells me that Lismore “is just one of those towns that attracts people in”. He used to come on holidays, before one day stopping for good.
Marcus O’Mahony runs ceramic and pottery courses in his workshop. O’Mahony’s work is inspired by the materials he uses, and a working trip to Japan. He and his family moved from Dublin in the 1970s. “We’ve found our spot. We looked around and found this battered old farmhouse, with a barn alongside, and said, this is where we want to be.” he food and drink on offer in Lismore is worth the trip alone. Justin Green’s O’Brien’s Chop House is in one of those old-fashioned bar-cum-grocery shops, now revamped into a beguiling restaurant. few doors down, the Summer House café and bakery has tasty cakes and lunches. Watch out for its Traffic Jam, in layers of red, amber and green. The Summer House has been in the Madden family for “hundreds of years”, says current owner Owen Madden, exaggerating only slightly. It was previously a bar where Fred Astaire used to drink when he came to visit his sister, who married one of the sons of the former duke of Devonshire. The bars of Lismore also come highly recommended, including Foley’s, Eamonn’s Place and, my favourite, the Red House.
Next weekend, the Lismore Music Festival presents two performances of Bizet’s Carmen, preceded by tapas and cava. The programme also includes a concert in St Carthage’s Cathedral (with its Byrne Jones window) following Sunday services, as well as the regular Lismore Farmers’ Market on the castle avenue, and an Opera Supper Club after each performance in the Chop House.
See lismoremusicfestival.com for information and tickets
