AUTHOR

Some months ago, I mentioned to my friend, poet and novelist, Philip Casey, that he had been the one, who, nearly twenty years ago, had suggested to me I should write about Cill Aodáin. I was born here, and this was the birthplace of Raftery and home to the Anglo Irish, McManus family, who had been influential writers, historians and folklorists. Philip had forgotten his advice, but I had not. This book has been years in making.
I did often attempt to write on the topic, Cill Aodáin, but could find no way into the material, until one day wilte reading that great Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas, I was struck by the simplicity and complexity of the line, “the best journey to make is inward”. That was the moment I´d been waiting for. Poems began to flow as if they had been waiting to be released. Perhaps they were meant to be.
It suddenly seemed to me as if my childhood memories and stories; my years of writing, teaching and living abroad had all been preparations for the making of this book. I took my work to Sally McKenna and, I was delighted to see her twenty-eight illustrations add an extra dimension to my work.

Terry McDonagh, grew up in Cill Aodáin, County Mayo. He attended Lismirrane and Ballyglas National Schools and St. Patrick´s Secondary School, Swinford, before spending almost six years studying to be a priest in St. Columban´s College, Dalgan Park, Navan, County Meath. He later studied to be a secondary teacher in UCG and moved to Hamburg in 1980 where he had his permanent address for more than twenty years.
In Hamburg, he worked initially, at anything that came his way, until he found work in language schools and at the Universitiy of Hamburg. In 1986 he became Drama Director at the International School of Hamburg; a post he held for sixteen years.He came in contact with Olaf Hille Verlag (publisher) in the early nineties and has his first collection published in 1993. Olaf Hille Verlag is now Blaupause Books. For some year he has been a fulltiime writer/poet and shares his time between Hamburg and Cill Aodáin.
Twelve of his poems have been put to music by German composer Eberhard Reichel. With uilleann piper, Diarmaid Moynihan, he completes the poet/piper duo, Raithneach. He founded Footslog theatre company in Hamburg with Australian actor Simon Storey.
His work, as dramatist and poet, has granted him the privilege of working in many countries. His poetry has been translated into German and Indonesian - he is the first Irish poet to have a collection of poetry published in the Indonesian language. He has been writer-in-residence in Asia, Australia and several European countries, including Ireland.