Irish novelist Colm Tóibín chats with Caroline Baum at a special event in the Sydney Recital Hall which was part of this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Award-winning Irish novelist Colm Tóibín was one of the feature attractions at the recent Sydney Writers’ Festival, but even the man himself says he was blown away by the level of interest in his appearances at a number of different events around the city.

The crowds flocked to see the author of the 2010 Costa Novel Award winning novel Brooklyn everywhere he went, but one particular highlight for Tóibín came at the City Recital Hall in the city on May 21.

“It was my first time at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and I really thought it was amazing. I did a few different events and some radio and other stuff, but that event [at the Recital Hall] really blew me away.

“I think there was something like 1,100 people at that gig which is really amazing for a Friday night when you think about it.

“People could be out drinking or doing other things but they chose to come along to see me so that was really great. They were all really nice to me too, they laughed at all my jokes, so I think it went well!” the 55-year-old joked.

Tóibín is a regular visitor to Australia having come here first back in 1993, but he says that every time he visits Sydney he is constantly taken aback by the “Irishness” of the place.

“There are an awful lot of people here that are of Irish origin. One of the first things you notice here is that there are so many streets here that are named after Irish people. It’s very unusual, we don’t even have that in Dublin, for example.

“I know we have O’Connell Street, but if you look at the likes of Nassau Street or D’Olier Street or Dawson Street, we never got around to changing the names of those streets after we got independence.

“You don’t get like a Walsh Street or anything, whereas over here you do which just gets me every time.

“The Irish just seem to have made such a huge contribution here in the 19th century. I’ve noticed even when I’m signing books for people here that there seem to be so many Irish surnames and that people seem to be really aware and conscious of their Irish backgrounds.”

by Aaron Dunne