A bilingual poet who has lived for half a century on the shores of Ballinskelligs Bay in Co Kerry, Bushe has explored, or more correctly interrogated, this part of the coastline from multilayered angles: kayaking; fishing; walking the roads, mountains and beaches; examining stone alignments; absorbing the land-and-seascapes and losing himself in contemplation.
The title is named after Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, the 12th-century Book of Invasions by the poet Amergin, who wrote of the ancient race of Milesians, said to have invaded Ireland but whose origins are shrouded in myth.
Part of Bushe’s journey involves tracing Milesian footsteps, while engaging in “physical and cultural scene-setting”.
He finds inspiration everywhere, whether listening to seals, or the raucous cavorting of choughs, or on an epiphany to Skellig Michael – which he writes as Sceilg – a place that has for him yielded a deep vein of memory.
The Amergin Step: An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh by Paddy Bushe
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Townlands carry an echo of the ancient importance that the names once bore, such as Keelmalomvorny or Baslickane (Baisleacán), derived from basilica, denoting an ecclesiastical site, while he climbs and investigates Drung and its hill from different perspectives.
An interconnected series of mythology, folklore and topography, the book is interlaced with a narrative tapestry of history, music and anecdote.
Through its six chapters the author shares the scholarship of writers such as Máire MacNeill, Brendan Kennelly, Greg Delanty and Richard Hayward, as well as the literary voice of the Derrynane O’Connells.
Simultaneously erudite and entertaining, Bushe shows his love of the area, but his dislike of vulture capitalists. Readers are challenged and informed.
The pages are not all filled with dreamy wave-watching or fiery sunsets. He discusses the population decline facing the area that has reached “demographic tipping point” and he feels that the peninsula is culturally impoverished with depopulation of the western part of Iveragh now, in his view, “an existential issue”.
He also vents his disgust at the secret philistinism of turning Sceilg, a Unesco World Heritage site, into a multibillion-dollar-driven movie set.
The arresting cover combines an ethereal landscape of hills and water with low clouds and birds. Inside, eight graceful drawings and two maps by the artist Holger Lönze add a flourish to a captivating work of Kerry artistry that will sweep you away to the far southwest.
