Healing power of nature at Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival

TWO very different nature writers will be visiting the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival this coming weekend. Both events will be at Lough Derg Yacht Club.

From Derry, Kerri Ní Dochartaigh was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town. But for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year they were forced out of two homes and when she was 11 a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window.

In her debut book ‘Thin Places’, a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard, and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours but, at the same time, it never really was.

‘Thin Places’ was shortlisted and highly commended for the Wainwright prize for Nature Writing.

Declan Murphy’s childhood encounter with a kingfisher in Wicklow was unforgettable. Returning to rivers years later, he embarks upon a journey to study this most elusive of birds during its nesting season.

Yet, as dippers, goosanders, grey wagtails and great spotted woodpeckers all yield their hidden habits to the author’s patient pursuit, the kingfisher continues to elude him.

When an unexpected incident threatens to shatter a delicate balance between the natural and workaday, the author is thrown into crisis. His retreat into the natural world, however, is not simply a distraction: its shapes, rhythms and sounds become a lifeline essential in navigating an emotional landscape. Faced with the prospect of a catastrophic loss, he harnesses the power of nature to fight for all that he holds dear, as the kingfisher becomes his Holy Grail.

Kerri Ní Dochartaigh will be in conversation with writer Madeleine D’Arcy and Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald on October 2, 2021 at 12pm – 1.15pm, Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer.

Declan Murphy will discuss ‘The Spirit of the River’ with Dr Allan Mee, who manages the reintroduction of the White-tailed Eagles into Ireland, on October 3 from 11am – 12.15pm, Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer.

Full details about the festival are available at www.dnlf.ie.