Title: The Amergin Step – An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh
Published: 2024
Publisher: Dingle Publishing Services
Project Editor: Siobhán Prendergast, Dingle Publishing Services
The Amergin Step is named after the famous poem that Leabhar Gabhála Éireann tells us was recited by the poet and lawmaker of the Gaelic Milesian people, as he stepped ashore in Kerry after their voyage from Galicia. Contemporary and historical literature, folklore, myth, archaeology and placenames are explored by the author at the same time as he explores the mountains, sea and islands of the tip of the Iveragh peninsula to uncover the stories that have animated them from earliest to present times.
The Author
Paddy Bushe has published thirteen collections of poetry, four of which are in Irish, and nine volumes of translation between Irish, English and Scottish Gaelic. A member of Aosdána, he has received the Irish Times Poetry Award, the Michael Hartnett Award and Duais Sheáin Uí Ríordáin. Although much of his poetry originated in travels in Nepal, China, Greenland and Morocco, the primary and longstanding source of his work has been the land and seascape of his adoptive home on the shore of Ballinskelligs Bay in Kerry.
Paddy is Winner of the O’Connell Award 2024.
The Amergin Step was launched on Friday 30 August 2024.
Minutes 30-40
Original artwork by Holger Lönze
Title Calligraphy by Timothy O’Neill
Author Photograph by John Minihan
Praise for The Amergin Step
‘No more valuable and compelling book will be published in Ireland this year.’
Bernard O’Donoghue
‘A profound exploration of the time and space of legend and poetry.’
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
‘In this wonderful book, Paddy Bushe allows us to experience a beloved landscape, made all the richer by
his poetic eye and his deep knowledge and appreciation.’
Eibhear Walshe
‘Landscape is viewed in this book as the embodiment of story, belief and creative art.’
Heather Laird
Máirín Uí Chonchubhair, author of Crainn & Toir published 2024
Dingle Publishing Services, Árd na Caithne, Ballyferriter, Tralee, Co Kerry
Email: info@dinglepublishing.com • Tel: +353 89 483 3793