Amergin Online

Well we are coming to the end of our series. We bring you one final episode with more tremendous poetry and music to conclude this online series. We want to thank you all for watching and sharing and for keeping poetry alive in your homes during lockdowns.
This week we welcome Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Marina Cassidy and John W. Sexton.
Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist, and fabulist. Her work is widely published, most recently in Banshee, Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, Writing Home: The New Irish Poets Anthology, broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1’s Poetry Programme and the Poetry Ireland podcast, and featured in the Poetry Jukebox and Irish Poetry Reading Archive. She is the current recipient of a Next Generation Artist Award in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Prize. She serves as poetry editor with Skein Press, and is the founder of the P[l]ay It Forward Literary Fellowship Programme
Marina Cassidy Born in Co. Meath, near the birthplace of the famous 18 th century harper and composer Turlough Carolan Ireland, Marina Cassidy’s musical talent was quickly spotted, so that she began her musical education at the age of six.
Many awards have been won, most notably the Irish Vocal Heritage Award 2000, being the first Singer & Instrumentalist combined to receive this award. In 2012, her skills as a singer / harpist gained her a Fellowship of The Guild of Musicians and Singers in the UK.
She holds a Diploma with Distinction in Singing Performance from The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music in the UK and in Harp Teaching from Trinity College of Music, London and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She also has a B.Ed ( Honours) Degree.
She is currently studying for an MSc in Music Therapy at QMU, Edinburgh. This highly gifted Harpist and Singer, performs from a wide repertoire which includes Classical, Contemporary and Irish music. The rich, pure quality of her soprano voice and her ability to interpret her material, musically and emotionally, combined with her craft as a harpist, weaves a web which catches us all within its spell.
John W. Sexton is the author of six poetry collections, the most recent of which is Futures Pass (Salmon Poetry 2018). A chapbook of his surrealist poetry was published in 2019 by SurVision. He also created and wrote the children’s science fiction comedy-drama, The Ivory Tower, for RTÉ Radio 1, which ran to over one hundred half-hour episodes between 1999 and 2002. His novels based on this series, The Johnny Coffin Diaries and Johnny Coffin School-Dazed are both published by The O’Brien Press and have been translated into Italian and Serbian. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.
Paddy Bushe read a farewell poem also.
This week we welcome wonderful pieces from Gabriel Rosenstock, Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich and James Harpur.
Gabriel Rosenstock Tugaigí libh bhur gcuid dánta go dtí na ceardlanna maidine seo. Má tá dánta nó rainn do pháistí agaibh, is féidir iad sin a chíoradh chomh maith. Beidh plé ar leith ar dhá sheánra Sheapánacha, an tanka agus an haiku. File, fear tanka agus haiku é Gabriel Rosenstock. I measc na leabhar is déanaí uaidh tá An Eala Órga, athinsint ar scéilíní ón India a d’fhoilsigh An Gúm; Walk with Gandhi: Bóthar na Saoirse (Gandhi 150 Ireland), leabhar haiku agus tráchtaireachta a dhéanann comóradh ar Gandhi, aspal na heasumhlaíochta sibhialta; agus an cnuasach dátheangach Glengower: Poems for No One in Irish and English (The Onslaught Press). D’fhoilsigh Poetry Chaikhana leagan méadaithe den leabhar cáiliúil aige Haiku Enlightenment le déanaí.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich Is boscadóir agus amhránaí cáiliúil ó Chorca Dhuibhne é Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch ó theaghlach go bhfuil ceol traidisiúnta sa smior iontu. Tá aithne forleathan air mar cheoltóir, bádóir, láithreoir teilifíse, áisitheoir ceardlainne agus mar chathaoirleach ar Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh i gCorca Dhubhne. Tá ceithre albam aonair aige, maraon le go leor taifeadtaí le ceoltóirí iomráiteacha eile. Is minic é ar stáitse le leithéidí na Boys of the Lough, na Chieftains, Stocktons Wing, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey srl. Chomh maith lena mhac Cormac. D’oibrigh sé le Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, agus Nuala O’Connor ar go leor léiriúcháin do TG4, ina measc Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch agus Cérbh É agus tá sé le feiscint ar an scannán le Dónal Ó Céilleachair Camino na Sáile a bhuaigh go leor gradaim ag féiltí scannáin. Dar leis féin ní bheadh ann dá cheol mura mbeadh na sléibhte, na farraigí agus na stoirmeacha ina áit dúchais féin i gCorca Dhuibhne.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, from a well- known traditional music family, is known far and wide as an exceptional box player and singer from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Kerry. He has carved a name for himself as a musician, a boatman, TV presenter, a workshop facilitator and as an organiser of the annual Scoil Cheol an Earraigh in Corca Dhuibhne. He has recorded four solo albums as well as others with many acclaimed musicians. He has played with The Boys of the Lough, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey etc as well as with his talented son Cormac. He has worked on music projects for TG4 with Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Nuala O’Connor for such programmes as Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch, and Cérbh É. and he featured in Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s award winning film Camino na Sáile. He himself has said that without the mountains, seas and storms of Corca Dhuibhne he would have no music.
James Harpur has had six poetry collections published by Carcanet and Anvil Press, including his latest, The White Silhouette (2018), an Irish Times Book of the Year. Angels and Harvesters (2012), was a PBS Recommendation and shortlisted for the 2013 Irish Times Award; and The Dark Age (2007) won the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize. His work has won many awards and bursaries, including the1995 British National Poetry Competition, a Patrick and Katharine Kavanagh Fellowship, and the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in the national press, including The Irish Times, The Spectator, The Guardian, The Financial Times, and The Independent, on national and local radio (including RTÉ Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4), and on public transport. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of the arts, and lives in West Cork.

This week we have a slightly different offering with a stunning poetry film from Pat Boran paired with a reading by John McAuliffe, with more exceptional music from Su Garrido Pombo.

 

PAT BORAN was born in 1963 in Portlaoise, in the Irish midlands, and has long since lived in Dublin. He has held a number of posts as Writer-in-Residence with libraries and third-level institutions. He has published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, most recently Then Again (Dedalus Press, 2019) and Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku (Orange Crate Books, 2016) with photographs by the author. A Man Is Only As Good: A Pocket Selected Poems was published in 2017 by Orange Crate Books. Editions of his poetry have been published in Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Portuguese, with further works in progress. Pat Boran's non-fiction includes the popular writers' handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (various editions) and A Short History of Dublin (Mercier Press). His humorous memoir The Invisible Prison: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, was published by Dedalus Press in 2009 and published in Italian as Un'Infanzia Irlandese in 2019 by Edizioni Kolibris. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review and a former presenter of The Poetry Programme and The Enchanted Way on RTÉ Radio 1, Pat Boran has edited numerous anthologies, among them Wingspan: A Dedalus Sampler (2006), Flowing, Still: Irish Poets on Irish Poetry (2009), The Bee-Loud Glade (2009), Shine On: Irish writers supporting those affected by mental ill health (2011), the 2014 Dublin One City, One Book choice If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (with co-editor Gerard Smyth) and, with co-editor Eugene O'Connell, The Deep Heart's Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem (2017). During lockdown in Spring 2020 he edited and produced The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, illustrated by the Sicilian artist Gaetano Tranchino. Pat Boran’s distinctions include The Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1989 and the US-based Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award in 2008. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of creative artists. (See also www.patboran.com)

 

Su Garrido Pombo Award-winning singer-songwriter Su Garrido Pombo incorporates Latin, Jazz, Bossa and Folk into her music. She studied guitar and musicology at the Universities of Salamanca and Granada and took a second degree in Art History in the Universities of Santiago and Florence. She has toured throughout Europe and North America with the folk group Lembranzas Galegas and later with her group Sonhos with whom she wrote and recorded the prize-winning album Sonhos. With her band Treme, she was awarded the Galician music prize Musicaxove 15 for best Galician group. She has also been awarded the Premio NARF in 2018 for Best Galician Musician and The Martin Codax Prize for Best Singer-Songwriter in 2019. Su shares her time between Galicia and Ireland. http://sugarridopombo.com/

 

John McAuliffe’s fifth poetry collection, The Kabul Olympics, was published by The Gallery Press in April 2020. Described by the PBS as “one of the most gifted and versatile poets of his generation”, his versions of the Bosnian poet Igor Klikovac, Stockholm Syndrome (Smith Doorstop), was a Poetry Book Society Spring Pamphlet Choice in 2019, and his previous book The Way In (Gallery) won the Michael Hartnett Award in 2016. He lives in Manchester, where he teaches poetry at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing. He also writes a regular column for The Irish Times and co-edits the online journal, The Manchester Review.

Eva Bourke Eva Bourke's recent publications include her seventh collection Seeing Yellow, published in April 2018, A Private Country/Ein privates Land, a selection of poems by Moya Cannon in German translation., (edition offenes feld, Dortmund 2017) as well as Fermata. Writings inspired by Music, co-edited with Vincent Woods (Artisan House, 2016). She is a member of Aosdana
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich Is boscadóir agus amhránaí cáiliúil ó Chorca Dhuibhne é Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch ó theaghlach go bhfuil ceol traidisiúnta sa smior iontu. Tá aithne forleathan air mar cheoltóir, bádóir, láithreoir teilifíse, áisitheoir ceardlainne agus mar chathaoirleach ar Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh i gCorca Dhubhne. Tá ceithre albam aonair aige, maraon le go leor taifeadtaí le ceoltóirí iomráiteacha eile. Is minic é ar stáitse le leithéidí na Boys of the Lough, na Chieftains, Stocktons Wing, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey srl. Chomh maith lena mhac Cormac. D’oibrigh sé le Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, agus Nuala O’Connor ar go leor léiriúcháin do TG4, ina measc Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch agus Cérbh É agus tá sé le feiscint ar an scannán le Dónal Ó Céilleachair Camino na Sáile a bhuaigh go leor gradaim ag féiltí scannáin. Dar leis féin ní bheadh ann dá cheol mura mbeadh na sléibhte, na farraigí agus na stoirmeacha ina áit dúchais féin i gCorca Dhuibhne.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, from a well- known traditional music family, is known far and wide as an exceptional box player and singer from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Kerry. He has carved a name for himself as a musician, a boatman, TV presenter, a workshop facilitator and as an organiser of the annual Scoil Cheol an Earraigh in Corca Dhuibhne. He has recorded four solo albums as well as others with many acclaimed musicians. He has played with The Boys of the Lough, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey etc as well as with his talented son Cormac. He has worked on music projects for TG4 with Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Nuala O’Connor for such programmes as Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch, and Cérbh É. and he featured in Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s award winning film Camino na Sáile. He himself has said that without the mountains, seas and storms of Corca Dhuibhne he would have no music.
Greg Delanty’s selected poems came out in November 2017, titled Selected Delanty, introduced and selected by Archie Burnett, Un-Gyve Press, US. Other recent books are The Greek Anthology, Book XVII and The Word Exchange, Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, WW Norton. His Collected Poems 1986-2006,Oxford Poets series, Carcanet Press, UK. He has received many awards, including a Guggenheim for poetry. He is Poet in Residence at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont and he’s a US citizen as well as an Irish citizen. He has two books forthcoming in Fall of 2020, a book of his own poems No More time (which these poems are from) and a book of translations from the Irish poet Seán Ó Riordáin.

Seán Dennehy is a Clare poet and singer living and working in Dublin. In 2012 he won the final of the All Ireland Poetry Slam in Cork. His first collection in print, No Poetry, was published in 2013 by QS Press. In May 2015 he presented Pieces in Project Arts Centre, a night of poetry and song showcasing his own work and that of his favourite poets. Following the success of Pieces he presented a festive follow up, Christmas Pieces in December 2015. His debut album of recorded spoken word and song, What it feels like, was released in May 2019.

 

Su Garrido Pombo Award-winning singer-songwriter Su Garrido Pombo incorporates Latin, Jazz, Bossa and Folk into her music. She studied guitar and musicology at the Universities of Salamanca and Granada and took a second degree in Art History in the Universities of Santiago and Florence. She has toured throughout Europe and North America with the folk group Lembranzas Galegas and later with her group Sonhos with whom she wrote and recorded the prize-winning album Sonhos. With her band Treme, she was awarded the Galician music prize Musicaxove 15 for best Galician group. She has also been awarded the Premio NARF in 2018 for Best Galician Musician and The Martin Codax Prize for Best Singer-Songwriter in 2019. Su shares her time between Galicia and Ireland. http://sugarridopombo.com/

 

Polina Cosgrave was born in Volgograd. Her poetry was featured on national radio and TV in Russia. She came to Ireland in 2016 to get an MA in Creative Writing. Her work has been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Writing Home by Dedalus Press. Next week we welcome Eva Bourke, Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich and Greg Delanty to Amergin Steps Online at 7.00pm Saturday 9th January.

Jackie Gorman is from Athlone and her first collection "The Wounded Stork" was published by The Onslaught Press in 2019. She was part of the 2017 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. In 2017, she won the Listowel Writers’ Week Single Poem Award and was commended in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards Poem of the Year Award. She has recently completed a Masters in Poetry Studies at Dublin City University. She has had work published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Lonely Crowd, The Honest Ulsterman and a number of other journals.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich Is boscadóir agus amhránaí cáiliúil ó Chorca Dhuibhne é Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch ó theaghlach go bhfuil ceol traidisiúnta sa smior iontu. Tá aithne forleathan air mar cheoltóir, bádóir, láithreoir teilifíse, áisitheoir ceardlainne agus mar chathaoirleach ar Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh i gCorca Dhubhne. Tá ceithre albam aonair aige, maraon le go leor taifeadtaí le ceoltóirí iomráiteacha eile. Is minic é ar stáitse le leithéidí na Boys of the Lough, na Chieftains, Stocktons Wing, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey srl. Chomh maith lena mhac Cormac. D’oibrigh sé le Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, agus Nuala O’Connor ar go leor léiriúcháin do TG4, ina measc Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch agus Cérbh É agus tá sé le feiscint ar an scannán le Dónal Ó Céilleachair Camino na Sáile a bhuaigh go leor gradaim ag féiltí scannáin. Dar leis féin ní bheadh ann dá cheol mura mbeadh na sléibhte, na farraigí agus na stoirmeacha ina áit dúchais féin i gCorca Dhuibhne.
Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, from a well- known traditional music family, is known far and wide as an exceptional box player and singer from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Kerry. He has carved a name for himself as a musician, a boatman, TV presenter, a workshop facilitator and as an organiser of the annual Scoil Cheol an Earraigh in Corca Dhuibhne. He has recorded four solo albums as well as others with many acclaimed musicians. He has played with The Boys of the Lough, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey etc as well as with his talented son Cormac. He has worked on music projects for TG4 with Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Nuala O’Connor for such programmes as Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch, and Cérbh É. and he featured in Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s award winning film Camino na Sáile. He himself has said that without the mountains, seas and storms of Corca Dhuibhne he would have no music.
Mark Roper’s latest poetry collection Bindweed, Dedalus Press (2017), was shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award. A Gather of Shadow (2012) was also shortlisted for that Award and won the Michael Hartnett Award in 2014. With photographer Paddy Dwan, he has published The River Book, The Backstrand, and Comeragh: Mountain, Coum, River, Rumour. Mark was Editor of Poetry Ireland for 1999. He was awarded Arts Council Bursaries in 2010, 2013 and 2016. A highly experienced Creative Writing teacher, he has run courses and workshops in many different settings, including schools, prisons, and senior citizen centres. From September 2002 to May 2003 he was writer-in- residence at Waterford Regional Hospital.

SHOW LESS

This week we welcome two sublime poets Gerard Smyth and Mary O’Donnell and gifted musician Su Garrido Pombo
Gerard Smyth is a poet, critic and journalist whose first poems were published in 1969. He has published ten collections, including The Sundays of Eternity ( Dedalus Press, 2020 ), A Song of Elsewhere ( Dedalus, 2015), The Fullness of Time: New and Selected Poems ( Dedalus Press, 2010 ). The Yellow River (with artwork by Seán McSweeney ) was published by the Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, in 2017. He was the 2012 recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award from the University of St Thomas in Minnesota and is co-editor, with Pat Boran, of If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song ( Dedalus Press ). He is a member of Aosdána and Poetry Editor of The Irish Times
Su Garrido Pombo Award-winning singer-songwriter Su Garrido Pombo incorporates Latin, Jazz, Bossa and Folk into her music. She studied guitar and musicology at the Universities of Salamanca and Granada and took a second degree in Art History in the Universities of Santiago and Florence. She has toured throughout Europe and North America with the folk group Lembranzas Galegas and later with her group Sonhos with whom she wrote and recorded the prize-winning album Sonhos. With her band Treme, she was awarded the Galician music prize Musicaxove 15 for best Galician group. She has also been awarded the Premio NARF in 2018 for Best Galician Musician and The Martin Codax Prize for Best Singer-Songwriter in 2019. Su shares her time between Galicia and Ireland. http://sugarridopombo.com/
Mary O’Donnell’s seven poetry collections include Unlegendary Heroes and Those April Fevers. Four novels include Where They Lie and the best-selling debut novel The Light Makers, reissued in 2018 by 451 Editions. In 2018 Arlen House published her third collection of stories, Empire. Her new collection Massacre of the Birds appears from Salmon next autumn. A member of Aosdana, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing from University College Cork.

Peter Sirr

has published ten collections, of which the most recent are The Gravity Wave (2019), a Poetry Book Society recommendation and Sway (2016), versions of poems from the troubadour tradition. The Rooms (2014) was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award and the Pigott Poetry Prize. The Thing Is (2009), was awarded the Michael Hartnett Prize in 2011. He is a member of Aosdána.

Each poem seems written with immense care, not only to arrange words scintillatingly, but also to preserve the briefest, most otherwise-ephemeral details. Reading these poems, we’re reminded that exactly where we’re vulnerable is where change is possible.’— from the PBS judge’s citation for The Gravity Wave. ‘Everyone who takes poetry seriously should read him attentively.’–Bernard O’Donoghue, The Irish Times

Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich

 

Is boscadóir agus amhránaí cáiliúil ó Chorca Dhuibhne é Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch ó theaghlach go bhfuil ceol traidisiúnta sa smior iontu. Tá aithne forleathan air mar cheoltóir, bádóir, láithreoir teilifíse, áisitheoir ceardlainne agus mar chathaoirleach ar Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh i gCorca Dhubhne. Tá ceithre albam aonair aige, maraon le go leor taifeadtaí le ceoltóirí iomráiteacha eile. Is minic é ar stáitse le leithéidí na Boys of the Lough, na Chieftains, Stocktons Wing, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey srl. Chomh maith lena mhac Cormac. D’oibrigh sé le Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, agus Nuala O’Connor ar go leor léiriúcháin do TG4, ina measc Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch agus Cérbh É agus tá sé le feiscint ar an scannán le Dónal Ó Céilleachair Camino na Sáile a bhuaigh go leor gradaim ag féiltí scannáin. Dar leis féin ní bheadh ann dá cheol mura mbeadh na sléibhte, na farraigí agus na stoirmeacha ina áit dúchais féin i gCorca Dhuibhne.

 

Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, from a well- known traditional music family, is known far and wide as an exceptional box player and singer from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Kerry. He has carved a name for himself as a musician, a boatman, TV presenter, a workshop facilitator and as an organiser of the annual Scoil Cheol an Earraigh in Corca Dhuibhne. He has recorded four solo albums as well as others with many acclaimed musicians. He has played with The Boys of the Lough, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey etc as well as with his talented son Cormac. He has worked on music projects for TG4 with Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Nuala O’Connor for such programmes as Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch, and Cérbh É. and he featured in Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s award winning film Camino na Sáile. He himself has said that without the mountains, seas and storms of Corca Dhuibhne he would have no music.

 

Enda Wyley

 

lives in Dublin and is a member of Aosdána. She has published six collections of poetry with Dedalus Press from her debut Eating Baby Jesus, (199233 ) through to Borrowed Space, New and Selected Poems. ( 2014) Her work has been widely broadcast and anthologised and she was the inaugural winner of the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, twice a winner of the British National Poetry Competition and a recipient of a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship for her poetry. Her most recent book of poetry is The Painter on his Bike, 2019. The UK poet Peter Robinson reviewing it in Dublin Review of Books, 2020, wrote; ‘it is the balancing act of drawing transitory subjects from the experiences of a life, presenting them with a deftness and lightness of touch that still delivers a weight of implication, while yet shunning overt claims to attention, that I found so captivating, so enabling in Enda Wyley’s The Painter on his Bike.’

This week we welcome three artists in three languages: poets Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh (in Irish with English translation), Seán Hewitt (in English) will be joined by singer Su Garrido Pompo (in Galician) on episode two of Amergin Online.

Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh

Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh is an Irish-language poet. Her poem ‘Filleadh ar an gCathair’ was chosen as Ireland’s EU Presidency poem in 2013 and was shortlisted for RTÉ’s ‘A Poem for Ireland’. Her books include Péacadh, (Coiscéim 2008), Tost agus Allagar (Coiscéim, 2016) and a bilingual collection The Coast Road (Gallery Press, 2016). Cois Life published her translations from the French of Andrée Chedid as part of the ‘File ar Fhile’ series. She received the Michael Hartnett Award in 2019 and the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award in 2020.

Su Garrido Pombo

Award-winning singer-songwriter Su Garrido Pombo incorporates Latin, Jazz, Bossa and Folk into her music. She studied guitar and musicology at the Universities of Salamanca and Granada and took a second degree in Art History in the Universities of Santiago and Florence. She has toured throughout Europe and North America with the folk group Lembranzas Galegas and later with her group Sonhos with whom she wrote and recorded the prize-winning album Sonhos. With her band Treme, she was awarded the Galician music prize Musicaxove 15 for best Galician group. She has also been awarded the Premio NARF in 2018 for Best Galician Musician and The Martin Codax Prize for Best Singer-Songwriter in 2019. Su shares her time between Galicia and Ireland. http://sugarridopombo.com/

Seán Hewitt

Seán Hewitt won an Eric Gregory Award in 2019, the Resurgence Prize (now the Ginkgo Prize) in 2017, and a Northern Writers Award in 2016. His debut pamphlet, Lantern (Offord Road Books) was Poetry Book Society Summer Pamphlet Choice in 2019. His first collection is Tongues of Fire (Jonathan Cape, 2020).

Welcome to Amergin Steps Online. We hope you can join us from the comfort and safety of your home. The series will be available on our website amerginpoetry.com and on our social medias @amerginpoetry. We hope enjoy.

To kick off the series we welcome two formidable poets Paddy Bushe and Paul Casey and a wonderful musician Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich.

Paddy Bushe

Born in Dublin in 1948, Paddy Bushe lives in Kerry and is a poet, editor and translator in both Irish and English. His collections include Poems With Amergin (1989), Digging Towards The Light (1994), In Ainneoin na gCloch (2001), Hopkins on Skellig Michael (2001), The Nitpicking of Cranes (2004), To Ring in Silence: New and Selected Poems (2008), My Lord Buddha of Carraig Éanna (2012) and On A Turning Wing (2016). He edited the anthology Voices at the World’s Edge: Irish Poets on Skellig Michael (Dedalus, 2010). The recipient of the Oireachtas prize for poetry in 2006, he also received the 2006 Michael Hartnett Poetry Award and the 2017 Irish Times Poetry Now Award. Two new books, Peripheral Vision, a collection in English, and Second Sight, a selection of his poems in Irish with his own translations, have recently been published by Dedalus. He is a member of Aosdána

Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich

Is boscadóir agus amhránaí cáiliúil ó Chorca Dhuibhne é Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch ó theaghlach go bhfuil ceol traidisiúnta sa smior iontu. Tá aithne forleathan air mar cheoltóir, bádóir, láithreoir teilifíse, áisitheoir ceardlainne agus mar chathaoirleach ar Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh i gCorca Dhubhne. Tá ceithre albam aonair aige, maraon le go leor taifeadtaí le ceoltóirí iomráiteacha eile. Is minic é ar stáitse le leithéidí na Boys of the Lough, na Chieftains, Stocktons Wing, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey srl. Chomh maith lena mhac Cormac. D’oibrigh sé le Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, agus Nuala O’Connor ar go leor léiriúcháin do TG4, ina measc Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch agus Cérbh É agus tá sé le feiscint ar an scannán le Dónal Ó Céilleachair Camino na Sáile a bhuaigh go leor gradaim ag féiltí scannáin. Dar leis féin ní bheadh ann dá cheol mura mbeadh na sléibhte, na farraigí agus na stoirmeacha ina áit dúchais féin i gCorca Dhuibhne.

Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, from a well- known traditional music family, is known far and wide as an exceptional box player and singer from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in Kerry. He has carved a name for himself as a musician, a boatman, TV presenter, a workshop facilitator and as an organiser of the annual Scoil Cheol an Earraigh in Corca Dhuibhne. He has recorded four solo albums as well as others with many acclaimed musicians. He has played with The Boys of the Lough, Na Casadaigh, Seán Davey etc as well as with his talented son Cormac. He has worked on music projects for TG4 with Philip King, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Nuala O’Connor for such programmes as Caipíní, Sé mo Laoch, and Cérbh É. and he featured in Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s award winning film Camino na Sáile. He himself has said that without the mountains, seas and storms of Corca Dhuibhne he would have no music.

Paul Casey

Paul Casey has published poems in numerous journals and anthologies in Ireland and internationally, most recently in Pratik and New Coin. His collection Virtual Tides (2016) was published by Salmon Poetry, which followed home more or less (Salmon, 2012) and It's Not all Bad (Heaventree Press, 2009). He is the recipient of three writing bursaries from the Cork City Arts Office. He created a poetry-film of Ian Duhig’s The Lammas Hireling (on vimeo). He edits the annual Unfinished Book of Poetry for secondary school students and promotes poetry in his role as director of Ó Bhéal in Cork - www.obheal.ie