Amra Choluim Chille

Colmcille plan to publish books on topics that promote the shared Gaelic heritage of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Eire. The first publication will be Amra Choluim Chille, produced in conjunction with the Ultach Trust.

Amra Choluim Chille is one of the oldest poems in Irish and certainly the oldest one which can be dated. It is about 155 lines long and it was composed in the years following the death of Colm Cille in 597, although it is possible that the opening verse was composed in 575.  The Amra is written in a very archaic form of Irish, complicated by the fact that the poet deliberately used a very difficult and obscure poetic register, and composed it according to conventions which are very different to our modern sense of what poetry is. The language is so difficult that only a handful of scholars can decipher it and most are afraid to tackle it - the last person to try to edit it published his version as far back as 1899.

This exhibition brings together the artwork of Brian Ferran and the calligraphy of Donald Murray in a visual response to the 4 versions of the poem - the original archaic version, Professor PL Henry's Modern Irish and English translations and Aonghas Dubh MacNeacail's Gàidhlig translation.

The result is a collection of stunning paintings which can be viewed at the Verbal Art Centre, Bishop Street, Derry between Thursday 2nd and Saturday 4th November.