Dublin, Ep. 3

April 29, 2011 — After a year away from Baile Atha Cliath, Literary Death Match returned to Ireland's capital in a masterful event with the masterminds behind MindField that saw Breakfast in Babylon scribe Emer Martin topple long-walker Paddy Toye (author of Paddy Toye's Donegal) in a 6-1 Literary Memory victory!

But before the first guess was made, the night saw a brilliant Donegal-off that pitted Toye against jack-of-maniac-literary trades Maximum Homosapien. "Max" led off with a crowd-winning theatrical performance, folowed by Toye, who's ruffled pages told the tale of a filthy apartment and the tall task of dodging one's landlord.  

The mic was then passed to the night's trio of judges: Irish Times journalist/broadcaster Sinead Gleeson, The Year of Magical Wanking's Neil Watkins, and comedic/theatrical star Liam Houricane (The Secret of the Kells) who praised both readers: Maximum's "Edgar Allen Poe-esqueness" and Toye's description of the flat — which they all thought they'd been in, in various cities around the UK and Ireland. 

After a difficult deliberation, the judges selected Toye to advance. 

Then came an epic second round that featured Guggenheim Fellow Martin against the dynamic playwright Grace Dyas and TheatreClub cohort Shane Byrne. The TheatreClub tandem led off with a staggering depiction of heroin's social use in Ireland, with Martin following up with a hurried excerpt from her third novel that stole the audiences ears and heart. 

Again, host and LDM creator Todd Zuniga handed the mic over to the judges, who loved Dyas/Byrne's boldness, but in the end sided with Martin's ever-engaging enthusiasm (and that her front-row daughter was a gem throughout the entire event). 

Then came the finale: a game of Literary Memory that featured fantastic Irish writers from Colm Toibin to Edna O'Brien. Each finalist was tasked with asking audience members to overturn pictures, and with each pair they selected, they were given a point, with a second point going to the finalist who guessed who was on the poster. Martin was unstoppable, exploding with a series of scores after Toye won his only point. In the end, she was not to be stopped, and won the Literary Death Match championship by a tally of 6-1, and with it: literary immortality!

Follow #LDM on Twitter and/or Facebook now!