Quite the match: Love for printing alive and well in Lisdoonvarna

One man’s passion for letterpress printing and vintage printing presses is putting Lisdoonvarna on the map as a centre of excellence for a renaissance of printing skills

Conor Burke, Letterpress Printer in Lisdoonvarna. Pictures: Brian Arthur

In an industrial unit on the outskirts of Lisdoonvarna, Conor Burke switches on a machine, and a sound that has long been consigned to history begins to echo around the cavernous building.

The hums and whirrs are the sound of a printing press, one of a large collection of machines from the 19th and 20th centuries that Conor has amassed in the workshop of his fledgling printworks, The Gentian Press, in the Co Clare town.