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One for the birds

Tuesday, 05 January 2010

The Blackrock poet Eithne Cavanagh reveals her fascination with nature in a stunning new book ‘An Elegance of Gannets’ How did I first become interested in birds? Well, it was through my first love of islands. It all started when I was a tiny child in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, when my mother, who was a great educationalist, used to trace maps of Ireland onto greaseproof paper for me long before I started school. And being a west Clare woman she always put in the three Aran Islands that seemed to be a sort of talisman for her. These maps inspired me to visit Aran, which seemed so romantic and unattainable. My first holidays were to Aran and my friends and I went there many times.  The sparkle of blue sea, the cry of gulls, the wind and the remoteness of an island, almost any island, are for me a source of rejuvenation of the soul. To date I have visited about 30 islands around the Irish coast including the Saltees, Sherkin, Skelligs, Aran Islands, Inisbofin, Clare Island, Rathlin O’Beirne, Tory and Rathlin Island. We have spent magical holidays exploring Scottish Isles right up as far as Unst in the Shetlands, the most northerly part of Scotland where we were in awe of the colonies of gannets.  While we there we had to run the gauntlet of bonxies - the Great Skua - a fairly aggressive bird. Another wonderful place is Fair Isle, famous for its intricate knitting patterns and colony of puffins. Comical The puffins are so plentiful there that you almost trip over them. Everyone loves them for their comical appearance. And I’m not forgetting boat trips over to Dalkey Island! There are still many islands left for me to explore. I have also been to the Uros Islands on lake Titicaca in Peru, but that’s for another book! Many of my island wanderings are recorded in this collection, as well as poems of spiritual places like Newgrange and Glencolumcille. Having been given a present of membership of BirdWatch Ireland I became interested in birds. I find their intelligence is beyond our human endeavours. How can a tiny creature fly unerringly over continents to migrate? Colum Clarke has collaborated with me in this endeavour with his very beautiful photos of birds. Colum can be seen round Kilmacanogue, Kilcoole, in fact anywhere that birds congregate, armed with his camera. Watch out for his forthcoming exhibition of bird photographs in Bray Library next February. This book is the most recent publication from Swan Press and I am delighted to have the opportunity to combine my island and poetry interests under one cover.  Swan Press is the publishing wing of Rathmines Writers of which, along with Mary Guckian, I am a founding member. It was founded by James Conway in 1990 and we will be celebrating 20 years of poetry and prose next year. Popular I’ve been lucky enough to be awarded a few prizes for my poetry. I have been facilitating creative writing classes that I enjoy very much. From time to time myself and Christine Broe who is an art therapist, run mixed media creative days and these have proved to be very popular. Hopefully this book brings together a few elements of special places, birds, the wind, gannets and puffins. A donation of e2 from the sale of each book goes to BirdWatch Ireland.