Dermot Somers is an Irishmountaineer, explorer, writer, and broadcaster. He was educated in the Irish-speaking Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin, and graduated from University College Dublin with a BA and HDipEd, and worked for a time as a teacher, before concentrating full-time on writing, broadcasting, and travelling. He now lives in Drogheda.
Climbing career
Somers started climbing in 1974 at the age of 27, and became one of the leading rock-climbers in Ireland in the 1970s, establishing significant new routes in areas such as Ailladie, Fair Head, Muckross Head, and Tormore in Co. Sligo. In 1983, he became the first Irishman to have climbed the six great north faces of the Alps. He participated in Irish expeditions to Himalayan peaks Changtse in 1987, Manaslu in 1991, and Everest in 1993. He has also climbed in the Andes and other greater ranges.
Writing and broadcasting
He has written several books in both Irish and English, documenting his travels, and also volumes of fictional short stories. His publications include:
Nightfall, a short story about a climb of the Eiger Nordwand at the outbreak of World War 3, in the short-lived The Irish Climber magazine
Rince ar na Ballaí, accounts of Somers's mountaineering and exploration adventures. which won the Oireachtas Award for Literature.
Collected Short Stories, an amalgamation of Mountains and Other Ghosts and At the Rising of the Moon.
Endurance: Heroic Journeys in Ireland, a collection of epic journeys from Irish history and mythology.
Buaic, a mountaineering novel.
Ar Muir is ar Sliabh, a novel
He has written and presented several programmes and series for radio and television, covering themes of mountaineering and exploration and Irish landscape and folklore. The television productions were mostly commissioned by RTÉ and TG4 and produced by John Murray of Crossing The Line Films. The productions include:
An Bealach Ó Dheas , a series which featured Dermot walking the length of Ireland from Malin Head to Mizen Head, exploring interesting places along the way.
Turas Feasa, a series which had Dermot following seven great Irish walks.
Turas Tréadacha , a series of films with Dermot joining local nomads on some of the world's great nomadic journeys, including Siberia, the Sahara, Iran , and Nepal .
Friends in High Places, a radio series featuring Somers climbing and walking and talking with various well-known guests, including politician Martin McGuinness and former champion cyclist and now mountaineer Sé O'Hanlon.
