A young Waterford artist using poetry to navigate through his new life in Dublin 

Darragh O’Dempsey describes himself as a wanderer.

Since finishing school in De La Salle and moving to Dublin to study last year, he has been wandering between his hometown of Waterford and his new life in the capital.

Whilst in Dublin, he spends time quietly wandering the streets, attempting to navigate through the feelings of confusion, loneliness and heartbreak that have accompanied him on his daunting journey from teenager to adult.

Amidst this, he has been using poetry as an outlet, leading to the creation of his second self-published collection; ‘The Wandering Wendigo'.

“It's been an eventful year to say the least…”, he said during our interview.

“I've learnt very quickly when I moved out into the world on my own that I no longer have the same support networks that I built up in school in De La Salle or in my home in Waterford.

“It was a really big step for me moving away, and with that came a sense of loneliness, desire and heartbreak that I hadn’t really felt in life before, and that really became the undercurrent for my latest anthology, ‘The Wandering Wendigo.’ 

A Wendigo is a mythological creature or spirit originating from Algonquian folklore. 

The wendigo idea came very early in the process of creating the latest collection, Darragh said.

“To become a wendigo, you have to indulge in cannibalism, so I ran with that idea but I flipped it into a form of emotional cannibalism to explore how relationships can consume us and become quite damaging.

“This idea became a way for me to understand what I was feeling, what I was going through. It helped me to reflect on everything that has happened to me."

An emerging artist, young in years, Darragh’s work contains a striking candour and vulnerability.

He says that writing has become a necessity for him, and putting his deepest thoughts and emotions onto the page has helped him process and understand his emotions.

“I recently experienced my first adult heartbreak, something more than teenage love. It was a real profound love, and creating this anthology has helped me understand that," he said.

The Wandering Wendigo is available now on Amazon.

On Friday, October 23, at 6pm, the physical collection will launch at The Book Centre. There will be a QnA session and readings by Darragh on the night.