Éigse n

a Gréine

WATERVILLE, CO. KERRY20TH – 23RD JUNE 2018

"Celebrating Contemporary Irish Poetry where Irish Poetry first came ashore"

Solstice PoetryGathering

Fáilte go dtí Éigse na Gréine i ndúthaigh Aimhirghin, go dtí ceiliúradh na filíochta comhaimsirí san áit ar thosnaigh an fhilíocht in Éirinn.

Welcome to the inaugural Amergin Solstice Poetry Gathering, a celebration of contemporary poetry in the place where, mythology tells us, Irish Gaelic poetry began with what has become known as The Song of Amergin. And not only Irish poetry: according to Robert Graves ‘English poetic education should, really, begin not with the Canterbury Tales, not with the Odyssey, not even with Genesis, but with the Song of Amergin’. The festival will celebrate that poem, in new poems, in film, in music and indeed in the landscape in which An Leabhar Gabhála places the poem. We will also welcome a poet and a musician from Galicia, from where Amergin and his Gaelic Milesian people came to Ireland. Welcome to our readings, workshops, talks and also more informal events in one of the most beautiful and mythologically resonant landscapes in the country. Could there be a better way to celebrate the richness of contemporary poetry?

Bain súp as.

Paddy BusheArtistic Director

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Wednesday June 20th – Tech Amergin

6.30pm Opening of Exhibition & Launch of Unde Scribitur

7.30pm An Chéad Chéim; A Celebration of Ireland’s First Poem

Thursday June 21th – Tech Amergin

9.30am Workshops10.30am Our oldest poem and the scribal tradition –

a talk by Timothy O’Neill Reading – Lorna Shaughnessy2.15pm Readings – Theo Dorgan, Mick Delap4.30pm Readings – Paula Meehan, Tony Curtis 7.30pm The Galician and The Gael – Poetry and Music with Manuel Rivas, trans. Lorna Shaughnessy, Carlos Nuňez, Máire Breatnach, Bernard O’Donoghue 10.00pm Open Mic – Venue to be confirmed

Friday June 22nd – Tech Amergin

9.30am Workshops10.30am Talk and Field Trip with Paddy Bushe2.15pm Readings – Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin,

Leanne O’Sullivan4.00pm Reading – Harry Clifton Book Launch Móinéar an Chroí – Paddy

Bushe7.30pm Readings – Michael Longley, Nuala

Ní Dhomhnaill, Kerry Hardie10.00pm Open Mic – Venue to be confirmed

Saturday June 23rd, 2018 – Tech Amergin

9.30am Workshops11.30am Amergin in the Open – words and music at the new Amergin monument on Waterville Sea front2.15pm Reading – Pat Boran, Cathal O’Searcaigh 4.00pm Book Launches John F Deane – Dear Pilgrim James Harpur – The White Silhouette 7.30pm The Anthony Clare Memorial Session 10.00pm St. John’s Eve Bonfire & Open Mic –

Venue to be confirmed

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PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

Enrol in one of our workshops and get a festival season ticket to cover all events at a 50% reduction.4

Workshops All workshops run 9.30am –12.30pm Thursday – Saturday in Tech Amergin, Waterville.

Three Day Workshop on Poetry and Mental Wellness with Leanne O’SullivanLeanne O’Sullivan is one of Ireland’s most exciting young poets. From the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, she was educated at UCC, where she now teaches. Her first collection, Waiting for my Clothes (Bloodaxe, 2004), was published when she had reached the age of 21 and traced a deeply personal journey, from the traumas of eating disorder and low self–esteem to the saving powers of love and positive awareness. She has since published three other collections with Bloodaxe Books: Cailleach: The Hag of Beara (2009) which won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, The Mining Road (2013), and A Quarter of an Hour (2018). She was awarded the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry in 2011, and received a UCC Alumni Award in 2012.

Three day Advanced Poetry Workshop with James Harpur James Harpur’s latest book is The White Silhouette (Carcanet), to be published in June 2018 and which will be launched at the Amergin Solstice Poetry Gathering. He has had five poetry collections published by Anvil Press, and his last book, Angels and Harvesters (2012), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize. Noted for his friendly and insightful guidance as a workshop leader, he has led residential poetry workshops at the Arvon Foundation and has been invited to various universities such as NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin, Lancaster, UCC, and the West of England as a Visiting Writer on their MA courses in creative writing. A poetry editor and adjudicator, he broadcasts regularly on RTÉ

Three day Poetry Workshop with Pat Boran Pat Boran has published six collections of poetry, the most recent of which are Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku (2016) and A Man Is Only As Good (2017), a pocket–sized new and selected poems. He wrote the popular writers’ handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (revised and updated, 2013) and A Short History of Dublin (2000).

Leanne Pat

Enrol in one of our workshops and get a festival season ticket to cover all events at a 50% reduction.

His humorous memoir The Invisible Prison: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, was published in 2009. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review and presenter of The Poetry Programme and The Enchanted Way on RTÉ Radio 1, he has also edited numerous anthologies. Awards include The Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1989 and the US–based Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award in 2008. He is a member of Aosdána. (see www.patboran.com)

Ceardlann Filíochta Gaeilge le Cathal Ó Searcaigh Tá Cathal Ó Searcaigh ina chónaí san áit ar rugadh é, Mín a’ Leá faoi scáth an Eargail i nGaeltacht Thír Chonaill. Tá aithne air mar fhile go naisiúnta agus go hidirnáisiúnta, agus tá fail ar a shaothar i dteangacha éagsúla. Ó foilsíodh an chéad cnuasach aige sa bhliain 1975, is iomaí sin leabhar atá tagtha óna pheann, idir bailiúcháin aonaracha agus leabhair roghnaithe éagsúla, idir buntéacsanna mar Ag Tnúth leis an tSolas: Dánta 1974–2000 (Cló Iar–Chonnachta, 2001) agus buntéacsanna le haistriúcháin mar An Fear Glas: The Green Man (Arlen House 2015).

Painting a Poem: a short course in the art of poetry and the poetry of art with Helen Richmond Helen has been a practicing artist since graduating from NCAD with a first in 1990. In 2017 she graduated from the NCAD Masters Programme. She lives near Cahersiveen.She has exhibited extensively in Ireland and has work in many public and private collections in Ireland and abroad including: Allied Irish Banks; First Active Building Society; The Hunt Museum University of Limerick; Standard Life; Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform; The Revenue Commissioners; The Four Courts; Manley, O’Reilly & Associates; The Royal Hospital, Donnybrook; The Irish Society for Contemporary Art; I.F.S.C.; University College Dublin; Dublin City University; Dermot Desmond etc. She is also an educator, teaching painting in Tech Amergin, Waterville.

Pat Helen Cathal James

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Book Launch

Unde Scribitur 6.30 Wednesday, 20th June,Tech Amergin, Waterville.

Unde Scribitur, which will be launched at the festival opening, is a unique publication celebrating The Song of Amergin. Five Ireland Professors of Poetry have written their individual poetic responses to Amergin’s poem. These poems, together with the original medieval Irish text, translations into English and modern Irish, and illustrated with original woodcut prints, in both a special letterpress edition by Ponc Press, and a digitally printed version, will make for a book to be cherished.

The book will be launched by Olivia O’Leary.

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Exhibition

Rosc Aimhirghin: Iveragh artists visualising Amergin6.30 Wednesday, 20th June,Tech Amergin, Waterville.

Artists: Regine Barstch, Pauline Bewick, Anja Gnauck, Alan Hall, Karen Hendy, Pieter Koning Joe Lidstone, Holger Lonze, Susan Morley, Róisín Ní Chionnfhaolaidh, Stephen O’Connell, Catriona O’Connor, Timothy O’Neill, Helen RichmondJean Usher

The exhibition will be launched by Olivia O’Leary.

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Opening Event

An Chéad Chéim: a celebration of Ireland’s first poemWednesday 20th June, 2018, 7.30 pmTech Amergin, Waterville.

On the eve of the summer solstice, the opening event of the inaugural Amergin Solstice Poetry Gathering celebrates the landing of Amergin and the Milesians on the shoreline immediately below where the festival takes place.

The event will focus on Amergin’s famous poem, which he uttered “as he put his right foot on the land” in which he claimed identity with the place, its flora and fauna.

Five Ireland Professors of Poetry, Michael Longley, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Harry Clifton, Paula Meehan and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin will read a poem they have written as a response to Amergin’s poem, especially for this event, poems which will be published in a special celebratory edition.They will be joined in the celebration by Marie Heaney

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reading from Over Nine Waves, which takes its title from the Amergin myth, and, in recognition of the fact that the Milesians came to Ireland from Galicia, by two of Galicia’s most distinguished artists, the poet and novelist Manuel Rivas and the composer and musician Carlos Nuňez.

Film–maker Dónal Ó Céilleachair will show his short film Ailiu Iath n–hErend which is based around the original text of the poem.

Composer Eilish Butler will present her newly composed musical setting of the poem, and festival musician–in–residence Máire Breatnach will also play her own tributary music.

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Thursday June 21st, Tech Amergin, Waterville

10.30am –12.30pmWorkshopsEnrol in one of our workshops and get a festival season ticket to cover all events at a 50% reduction.

(see pages 3&4)

10.30amOur Oldest Poem and the Scribal Tradition – an illustrated talk with Tim O’Neill An illustrated talk by Ireland’s most renowned calligrapher and calligraphic historian, Tim O’Neill, in which he explores the monastic scribal tradition of which An Leabhar Gabhála and the Amergin poem are a part.

ReadingLorna Shaughnessy

2.15pmReadingsTheo DorganMick Delap

4.30pmReadingsPaula MeehanTony Curtis

7.30pmThe Galician and The Gael – Poetry and MusicManuel Rivas, his translator Lorna Shaughnessy,Carlos Nuňez, Máire Breatnach and Bernard O’Donoghue.

10.00pmOpen Mic Venue to be confirmed

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“am wind on sea...am gaeth i m-muir...mé gaoth ar muir...”

– Amergin

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“am wind on sea...am gaeth i m-muir...mé gaoth ar muir...”

– Amergin

Friday June 22nd, Tech Amergin, Waterville

10.30am –12.30pmWorkshopsEnrol in one of our workshops and get a festival season ticket to cover all events at a 50% reduction.

(see pages 3&4)

10.30amTalk and Field Trip with Paddy Bushe Poet Paddy Bushe gives an illustrated introductory talk on elements in the local landscape that form part of the Leabhar Gabhála narrative. After the talk, we will visit a vantage point associated with the myth from where many of the other landscape elements can be seen.

2.15pmReadingsEiléan Ní Chuilleanáin Leanne O’Sullivan

4.00pm ReadingHarry Clifton Seoladh Leabhair/Book LaunchPaddy Bushe – Móinéar an Chroí (Coiscéim)

7.30pmReadingsMichael Longley Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill Kerry Hardie

10.00pmOpen MicVenue to be confirmed

“am wave swelling...am tond trethan...

mé tonn díleann...”– Amergin

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“am wave swelling...am tond trethan...

mé tonn díleann...”– Amergin

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Saturday June 23rd, Tech Amergin, Waterville

10.30am –12.30pmWorkshopsEnrol in one of our workshops and get a festival season ticket to cover all events at a 50% reduction.

(see pages 3&4)

11.30amAmergin in the Open – Poems and Music at the new Amergin monument on Waterville SeafrontSculptor Holger Lonze, now resident in Iveragh, has created a wonderful large–scale bronze monument on the Amergin story, which was commissioned by Irish Water and Kerry County Council.

The recently erected monument now stands near the beach in Waterville, the landing place of the Milesians.

2.15pmReadingsPat BoranCathal O’Searcaigh

4.00pmBook LaunchesJohn F Deane – Dear Pilgrim (Carcanet)James Harpur – The White Silhouette (Carcanet)

7.30pmThe Anthony Clare Memorial Session (see page 15)

10.00pm St. John’s Eve Bonfire & Open Mic Venue to be confirmed

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The Anthony Clare Memorial SessionSaturday 23rd June, 7.30 pm Tech Amergin, Waterville.

The last formal session of the festival will honour the memory of Anthony Clare, the psychiatrist who, professionally and also through a wider media presence, touched the lives of many.

He had a personal and professional commitment to the arts which was evident when he visited his adoptive home in Waterville, a relationship with Iveragh which his untimely death tragically cut short.

Tonight that interest in the arts, especially in the written word, will be explored by Professor Brendan Kelly, who is working on a biography of Anthony Clare.

The London–based actor Peter Marinker, who has played in Tech Amergin a number of times, will present a one–act play “Terry and Tony”. The Terry of the title is Terence Alan “Spike” Milligan and the Tony is Anthony Clare, whose interview with Spike Milligan about his depression on the BBC series The Psychiatrist’s Chair in 1982 still resonates.

The short play is in fact a monologue in the voice of Spike Milligan.

Cahersiveen poet Seán Sugrue will present “Isolation Island/SUPER ME, his filmed poem about bipolarity and Portmagee writer and storyteller Seán Ó Laoghaire will present his own narrative about facing up to and dealing with depression.

And, if time allows, there will be other reading and contributions.

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Admission;3 day workshops ............................................€100

Combined ticket ............................................€145(workshop and all events)

Season ticket.....................................................€90 (includes all events except workshops)

Opening event .................................................€15

Daily ticket ........................................................€30

Booking: www.amerginpoetry.com

Information: 0872931463

With very special thanks to Jane Clare. Images - Pauline Bewick, Michael Herrmann, Holger Lonze.