Blog - Andrew McNeillie's Blog at The Clutag Press

Posted on May 9, 2016March 15, 2017 by andrew

Sailing to an Island

A week ago at the time of writing this, I had an email from Philip Marsden, one of our prized Archipelago contributors. He told me: ‘I leave for Dingle at dawn on Friday’. It was the stirring opening to a poem, for sure, the ring of Auden’s ‘Leave for Cape Wrath tonight’ about it, though none of the period desperation. By now he’ll have that first leg of his single-handed voyage from Falmouth to the Hebrides behind him. We hope to rendezvous up there somewhere weather and time permitting. But whether we can or cannot, he will have had the better part of it by many a sea-mile. I can only imagine what poignant and vigorous wonders there’ll be in his log. Just as I heard from…

Posted on October 1, 2015March 14, 2017 by andrew

UNENCOMPASSING

To sign up for the Atlantic Archipelagos Research Consortium / Archipelago event at Somerville College, Oxford, on Saturday 14 November 2015 please follow the link here: unencompassingthearchipelago.wordpress.com You can book for either the day’s events or the evening’s performances or both. We very much look forward to seeing you there. 1st October 2015

Posted on July 28, 2015March 14, 2017 by andrew

Devolved Voices

Interview: Andrew McNeillie Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford. An editor and publisher, including a stint as literature editor at Oxford University Press, he has also held a… Read more… Listen to Andrew McNeillie interviewed as part of Devolved Voices, an exciting three-year research project based at Aberystwyth University. The project considers the development of English-language poetry from Wales since the vote for devolution, with a particular focus on those poets who have emerged since 1997. 28th July 2015

Posted on July 6, 2015March 15, 2017 by andrew

No Passage to Landward

In large capitals on the lighthouse But caught too late for us to change course. We sail towards catastrophe. Our epitaph-in-waiting: lost at sea. Sure of this in all the world: The sea alone will keep its word. If ever there was a timely moment to reflect on there being NO PASSAGE TO LANDWARD this is it. The lighthouse concerned stands off Penmon Point on Anglesey, beyond it Puffin Island. We’re delighted to say that Archipelago 10 is on course and might even put into harbour ahead of time. Contributors: Norman Ackroyd, Julian Bell, Mark Cocker, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Tim Dee, John Fanshawe, John Greening, John Jones, Angela Leighton, Stephen Pax Leonard, James Macdonald Lockhart, Robert Macfarlane, Bernard…

Posted on March 15, 2015March 15, 2017 by andrew

Night & Day

A hardy reader of the magazine scuba diving off Slyne Head in the cold March seas has just tweeted the two images reproduced here, top and bottom. We are pleased to re-tweet and hope you will all follow suit. A free copy of Archipelago 10 to Gráinne Ni Cormac of Westport when the time comes. And for once we know not only the time but mirabile dictu also the place. Please enter this in your old-fashioned diaries or, if you think they have a future, your digital devices. In association with Somerville College, Oxford, and the Atlantic Archipelagos Research Consortium, we are holding a day of talks and an evening of readings and musical performances to mark our seamark tenth issue on Saturday 14 November 2015. ALL WELCOME. Archipelago…

Posted on November 23, 2014March 15, 2017 by andrew

The Eighth Sea

Hilary Chandler I keep his compass on my desk That it might steer me home. A gift his widow gave me with His hand-drawn charts of wrecks. Hotspots to fish; and a mackerel line On a bleached wooden frame With a lead-weight cone to plumb Memory’s sea-green currents For shoals that once ran deep and wide Mere spectres now in the eighth sea. Andrew McNeillie 23 November 2014

Posted on October 3, 2014March 15, 2017 by andrew

Hope and Anchor

We’ve been holed up proofing Issue 9 at our favourite hideaway quay in the wild west. The place is otherwise more or less unused other than by seabirds, hoodie crows, and the occasional lobster looking for a telephone. Unused, that is, except for nefarious ‘black-catch’ deals at the backdoor of the local gastro-pub THE HOPE AND ANCHOR. The proprietor is himself struggling to survive. As are the fish he pays through the nose for. Just as we are in these hard and uncertain times. I took this picture of the good ship with my old box-brownie app. and a reel of Kodak Colour. I thought I must ‘share’ it with you, comme on dit. What’s with the French?…

Posted on July 27, 2014March 15, 2017 by andrew — 1 Comment

‘From the Wheelhouse . . .’

Who goes to sea knows heart’s care. Groves blossom burghs grow fair meadows beautiful. World quickens. All things urge spirit to embark fare far by flood-ways though melancholy call of summer’s lord the cuckoo bode bitter heart-sorrow. from ‘In the Wake of the Seafarer’ Winter Moorings (2014) Welcome to the wheelhouse! The big news: Archipelago has acquired a second fishing boat, a single rig prawn trawler we’re in the process of converting into a back-up floating editorial office: ARCHIPELAGO II. See the picture ‘Northwest Passage’ below: Skipper Macdonald Lockhart at the wheel, Katherine Rundell in charge of tightropes. Both images are by Andrew McNeillie. The blog that follows on from the ‘Northwest Passage’ image, about a visit to…

Posted on May 25, 2014March 15, 2017 by andrew

‘The beautiful island . . .’

This is to mark the death of Iain Munro, crofter, boatman, and inspiration to all who had the privilege of meeting him. He drowned on the night of Friday 15 May, off the north coast of Ulva, making headway to Gometra, in a small RIB powered by a single outboard. His sole passenger, Andrew McNeillie, by some miracle made it ashore, at Port Bata na Luinge, round the point of Rubha nan Gall, and survived, managing eventually to raise the alarm at Gometra House at about 7.30 a.m. The two had spent the afternoon and evening together on Mull, erecting fencing against deer, and running errands on a dreich day with a mounting southerly wind. There will be a funeral…

Posted on February 19, 2014March 15, 2017 by andrew

SOS: MV Naomh Éanna

from breakers’ yard to breaker’s yard . . .? To all who knew the Aran Islands before the Celtic Tiger came and went, leaving such havoc in its wake, the ferry MV Naomh Éanna (1956-86) is an icon in the aesthetics of the voyage and of saner times. When I went out to live on Inis Mór in November 1968 she was not in service but in Dublin for a Board of Trade Survey. I had to go out in a three-hour crossing aboard a trawler from Ros a’ Mhil in Connemara, in a Storm 10.The Naomh Éanna would not have set out in such conditions. (She was top heavy at the best of times.) Once on the island…