Oein DeBhairduin

Oein DeBhairduin is a creative soul with a passion for poetry, folk herbalism and preserving the beauty of Traveller tales, sayings, retellings and historic exchanges. He is the manager of an education centre and a long-time board member of several Mincéirí community groups, including having had the honour of being vice-chair of the Irish Traveller Movement and a council member of Mincéir Whidden. He seeks to pair community activism with cultural celebration, recalling old tales with fresh modern connections and, most of all, he wishes to rekindle the hearth fires of a shared kinship. Oein’s book Why The Moon Travels is illustrated by Leanne McDonagh. It was published by Skein Press in September 2020 and won the Eilís Dillon Award for an Outstanding First Book for Young People and the Judges’ Special Award at the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2021.

Skein Press was established in June 2017 to publish writers whose work is fresh and thought-provoking and features outlooks and experiences not often represented in Irish publishing.