Catch up Part Two: Things of a fishy nature

Photos from the award night on Friday. Apparently I had only the one look that night. I was happy before we left for the ceremony...

...and when we arrived and saw the published book...


...and after I got my award and fish-knife.


But writing awards were not the hot topic of conversation for the week. Just before we arrived, the biggest drugs haul in Ireland was seized off the coast of West Cork. It was a bizarre happenstance: bad weather flared up during the unloading of a shipment of cocaine in a little bay; the smugglers' boat capsized, and one of the guys had to go for help.

When help came, they noticed lots of parcels bobbing around the bay. Parcels of cocaine, as it turned out. Valued at over 100 million euros.

We stayed in the village of Kilcrohane, where three of the drug dealers had set up base, so the talk was all of the criminals and identification line-ups and the ongoing investigation. Then it transpired there was one bale missing: containing 25kg of cocaine, worth about 1.5 million.

Lots of little boats seemed to spend the week tracing paths around the jaggedy inlets...