It all started in September 2004 when Owen McGuire emailed me asking about my film BATTLE OF THE BOGSIDE.  Owen is involved with St Kilians GAA club in Wurzburg who were also involved in the Wurzburg International Film Festival in Germany.

Saturday 22 January 2005 and I'm on my way to London Heathrow to stay overnight and catch the 7.15am flight to Frankfurt the following morning.

Sunday 23 January, the alarm clock goes off at 5.30am- eh? 5.30am?? On a Sunday morning??  6.05am and I'm sitting on the 'hotel hoppa' bus to Heathrow, checking in for my flight at 6.30am.  I'm still asking myself, 'what the feck am I doing, where am I going?'

The flight to Frankfurt finally decides to take off an hour late, messing up my plans to make the 11.09am high speed train to Wurzburg from Frankfurt.  I text Owen, he says not to worry, he'll delay the film screening by 15 minutes and if I get the next train we'll make it for the end of the film.

After negotiating my way through the massive airport that is Frankfurt I finally discover the train station and make the next train.  The journey to Wurzburg was absolutely breathtaking!  Travelling through all these beautiful snow clad villages and towns, Christmas card images the lot of them.

Owen meets me at the train station and we arrive at the Cinemaxx just before the film ends. Five minutes later I'm standing conducting a 'question and answer session' in front of a cinema full of Germans, Irish, English, American and Welsh natives!  I don't know if many understood me as I was still a bit hyper from the travelling but it seemed okay to me!

Afterwards, Owen introduced me to Stephen Lock (The Sawdoctors film) and a few of his friends over from Ireland. All 'sound' people as we say in Derry.

Checked in at the Hotel Russ, thought that I could sleep after the early start but after lying down for the grand total of 4 minutes, I decided to go for a walk around Wurzburg.  What a stunning place. It was very quiet, being a Sunday of course, ideal for sightseeing.  It's a very long time since I have been in such a visually attractive place.

Met up with Owen and Stephen at the Corso later for the awards ceremony and even though I didn't understand one single word (didn't do German at school) and I didn't win the documentary award, it all seemed like good fun!  Then it was off to the pub for some refreshments and a very unusual way of keeping a tab at the bar! Every time drink was ordered the barmaid puts an X on your beermat, counting the X's at the end of the night before paying your bill! I'd never seen this before and I know this would not work in Derry as some fun would be had with a pen and spare beermats!

After a lovely meal, I had a great evening with Owen, Stephen Lock, Dierdre ('Photos to Send') Lynch and Owen's friends/ relatives from Ireland, JP, Brendan, John and Nora.  By 1am we'd sorted out the Northern Ireland Peace Process! Why didn't Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern come straight to us? We had it sorted in a few hours!

9.45am Monday morning and I'm in a taxi heading for the train station again, arguing with a taxi driver whether Boston is in the West or East coast of the USA! He's convinced that it's in the West, I agree with him just to keep him quiet! I hop on the train at 11.30 and I'm on my way home.

9.00pm and I'm sitting back in Derry taking it all in. What a wonderful festival, great people and I'll definitely be back, this time with my family and spending longer than one day there.

Thanks to all involved

See you again soon

'Battle of the Bogside'

Thursday 27th January 2005