Irish Examiner*Thursday, 1 October 2015Page: 15

Circulation: 37009Area of Clip: 50100mm²Page 1 of 2

Discworld is coming to Cork Terry Pratchett, the fantasy author who died this year, sold 75 million books worldwide. His Discworld is coming to Ireland and Caroline Delaney can't wait.

IF YOU think the woman’s name,

Magrat, is a typo or if you can’t see the funny side of Death getting

sick of it all and causing havoc by taking a break, then

steer well clear of the Discworld convention taking place in Cork this

weekend. A celebration of the fantastical

world created by the late Terry Pratchett, the four-day convention will

feature everything from the launch of a special boardgame — Clacks from Backspindle Games — to a Maskerade

Ball. This is the first convention since Terry Pratchett’s death in March, and is the first ever one in Cork — fans are coming from Britain,

Belgium, Germany, America and even all the way from New Zealand.

Terry Pratchett wrote a Discworld series of 41 novels which are wild and witty rampages through a fantasy world populated by wizards, witches, trolls and vampires and Death himself.

Despite, or perhaps because of, these characters, the Discworld bears an uncanny resemblance to our own world — whether it’s a bureaucrat’s love of memos and meetings or some people’s unwavering

faith in the goodness of‘herbs’ to cure anything at all. Politicians, socialites,

clock-watching workers, and fast-food vendors invariably interact in a way that veers from laugh-outloud

funny to tear-jerking in the space of a couple of pages.

Pratchett himself suffered earlyonset Alzheimer’s Disease and became a patron for Alzheimer’s Research

UK. This weekend’s convention will feature an auction of an

eclectic mix of Discworld merchandise and memorabilia to raise funds

for Barnardos, the Simon Community and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. The last auction raised several thousand

euro for good causes and it is expected this will be topped this time.

While the event is mainly about meeting fellow fans and having a cracking time, the social justice aspect

of the convention, which is held every two years in a different location,

would no doubt have appealed to Pratchett who repeatedly covered the themes of equality (even of subspecies

such as zombies) and often made heroes of characters who were just scrabbling for a living.

In Feet of Clay an old woman and a baby boy die after a maid takes home some leftover food originally intended

as part of an assassination attempt at the palace. Not many characters in the city care about the death of some poor people who weren’t involved in politics or high society. Vimes: “Mrs Easy’s dead!” Carrot: “Who, sir?” Vimes: “You’ve never heard of her?” Carrot: “Can’t say that I have, sir. What did she used to do?” Vimes: “Do? Nothing, I suppose. She just brought up nine kids in a couple of rooms you couldn’t stretch out in and she sewed shirts for a tuppence an hour, every hour the bloody gods sent, and all she did was work and keep to herself and she is dead, Captain.

And so’s her grandson. Aged 14 months. Because her granddaughter took them some grub from the palace!

A bit of a treat for them! And d’you know what? Mildred thought I was going to arrest her for theft! At the damn funeral for gods’ sake! It’s murder now. Not assassination, not politics. It’s murder.”

But of course any world populated by bickering witches; a werewolf who suffers badly with her ‘time of the month’; and a troll who self-harms every time he salutes, is bound to have plenty whimsical and downright

hilarious chapters too. And it’s the light-hearted aspects

that will no doubt appeal to many at this weekend’s shindig which will involve

quizzes, crafting workshops and games galore. It’s a given that any ‘fantasy’ genre invariably involves

costumes and role-players and Irish Discworld Convention 2015 media officer, Eoin Hurley says all fans are welcome whether they just want to pop along or get all dressed up in their full Discworld regalia.

There will be some special guests in attendance over the weekend too — Convention spokeswoman, Rachel Scanlon confirmed that Jack Cohen, co-author of the Science of the Discworld

books, will be available for a skype chat (his original plans to attend

have been changed for health

reasons); and Jacqueline Simpson, co-author of The Folklore of Discworld

will be there. “And the guest of honour will be Bernard Pearson, whose amazing Discworld sculptures earned him the title of ‘The Cunning Artificer’ from Sir Terry himself,” she added.

Fans who want to bring the Discworld to life when they get home are

expected to snap up Clacks — a new board game being launched at the Convention. This is Backspindle’s second Discworld-themed board game — the first is Guards Guards. Clacks is inspired by the fiendishly simple Discworld messaging system based on semaphore and a network of communications towers. There will be a special convention price for the board game.

As Pratchett himself said, no one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die.

Well, there should be plenty Discworld-related ripples in Cork this

weekend. The Irish Discworld Convention 2015 starts tomorrow at Cork International Hotel and rocks on until October 5. idwcon.org or @IDWCon or info@idwcon.org

All fans are welcome whether they just want to pop along or get all dressed up in full Discworld regalia

Irish Examiner*Thursday, 1 October 2015Page: 15

Circulation: 37009Area of Clip: 50100mm²Page 2 of 2

Left: a typical Discworld convention. Right: Covers of Pratchett's novels which are a bewildering romp thorough a world of wizards, witches, trolls and vampires and Death himself.