Hello, and welcome to the Irish SF News. What I’m hoping to do here is to provide a monthly newsletter carrying details of what sort of events are going on in Ireland that might be of interest to the enthusiastic Science Fiction hobbyist (or ‘fan’, if you prefer!) There are always things going on here, but it’s not always easy to find out about them, and I couldn’t count the amount of times I found out about something a few days after it was over. However, with the wonders of electronic communication, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get details from the various organisers well in advance so that I can pass them on to you. I’m going to start by doing a run-down of what’s going on, and, for the purposes of this introductory mail, I’m going to presume that none of you have ever heard of any of this stuff. So…

The regularly held events that I am aware of in Ireland are:

• OCTOCON:
  Octocon, The National Irish Science Fiction Convention (to give it it’s full name) is held every October in Dublin, usually in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire. The first one was in 1990, and I’ve been to all of them! You can visit their web site at www.octocon.com. Regular attendance floats between 250 and 300. Saturday and Sunday 19 & 20 October 2002 Guest of Honour: China Miéville
  
• MECON
  MeCon is held in Queen’s University, Belfast every March. The most recent one was their fifth. I know that there are plans to demolish the Senior Common Rooms in Queen’s, which is where they have held all of the cons so far, so there is no certainty that there will be a convention next March, as far as I know. (The last time I wrote this, I got a curt note from the chair of MeCon 6, telling me they were going ahead, but, as I received no reply to my mail asking for more details, and allowing for the fact that I can find no mention of M6 on the web anywhere, I’m still taking the position that it’s in doubt, until I hear otherwise. A shame, as I really enjoyed the two I’ve managed to get to.)
  
• SUBCON
  SubCon is a comic con, although this is more of the mart variety, generally with a guest or two at a top table, signing autographs and drawing sketches, and a two rooms full of the best comics you’ll find! I’ll be there, too, selling books. SubCon is run by Robert and Brian Curley (of SubCity). This has moved about the calendar, although I think they favour February. There are some rumours of them thinking of running two of these a year. Incidentally, after having an unnamed event in 2000, SubCon 1 was last year. They’ve renumbered this year’s event to SubCon 3 to reflect the correct numbering, as they’re obviously now in for the long haul. No website yet, but I’m assured that it’ll be incorporated into the shop’s site, when that goes up. This year’s event is run simultaneously with
• CARITAS Dublin
  CARITAS Dublin is a Buffy/Angel related event, more on which below. 6 July 2002, Royal Dublin Hotel. €6 per person.
• SCIFICLUB
  SciFiClub is the regular Dublin fan meeting, and is held on the first Tuesday of the month in Bowe’s Pub in Fleet Street, at 8PM. There’s usually a topic for each meeting, and they run a raffle at each meeting to help to make end’s meet. There’s an electronic newsletter, which you can join by going to the SF Club web site where you will find a ‘join up’ box. Information on forthcoming meetings is there, too.
• TOY FAIR
  The Dublin International Toy and Train Fair, to give it its full name. Brian Kelly and Terry McNally have run this successfully for the past ten years, and they have now moved to the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire, after a number of years in the Rochestown Lodge. There are usually four of these a year, with the next two due in September and November. Everything from Tin Trains and Star Wars figures, to Beanie Bears and doll’s houses. There are few better ways to spend an idle Sunday afternoon, it seems to me…

Besides the regularly held events listed above, there are various one-off events, such as…

CARITAS DUBLIN 2002: This is a Buffy/Angel related event, which is being held in the Royal Dublin Hotel on Saturday 6th of July. I covered this extensively in a mail-out from the Octocon Newsletter, so I’m not going into too much extra detail here. Lots more info here

• I’ve a lot more news, which I’m going to cover in the second half of this mail, which I’ll send out within a week. I sent a letter out to various people asking for news, and a lot of them wrote back, so there’s all that, as well as information on Crazy Dog Live!, the new 6-part radio show from Roger Gregg & co, and much more besides. Not to mention an explanation as to why I’m holding a World Cup draw, especially with my own extremely negative opinion of football.
• Don’t forget that Sunday the 16th of June is Bloomsday, a day on which Dublin celebrates the works of James Joyce with various events all over the city. I tend to have my own reason for celebrating Bloomsday, as it is on that day 5 years ago that I gave up the demon drink. For good, it seems.
• Before I go, I would like to thank all of you who subscribed to this list from the Octocon newsletter, some from all over the world, and especially those of you who said some astonishingly kind things about my previous efforts. You made an old man very happy!

Pádraig Ó Méalóid
Irish SF News