presents the Five Words competition winners:
David Ross Linklater (1st), Alison McCrossan (2nd)
& Glyn Matthews (3rd)
(celebrating 680+ nights of Poetry)
featuring Five Words Volume XVI and an open-mic for Only Other Poets’ Poetry
David Ross Linklater is a poet from Balintore, Easter Ross in the Highlands in Scotland. He is the author of four pamphlets, most recently Star Muck Bourach (Wish Fullfillment Press, 2022). He is the recipient of a Dewar Arts Award and has been shortlisted for a New Writers Award and the Edwin Morgan Award. His work has appeared in The Dark Horse, Bath Magg, New Writing Scotland and Gutter. He lives in Glasgow where he works as a screen printer.
Alison McCrossan is from Cork. She took the Master’s in Creative Writing at UCC in 2019 with an interest in fiction and graduated with a growing interest in poetry. Publications include The Honest Ulsterman, Southword, Crannog, Abridged, Orbis and Stand Magazine (forthcoming). Her novel in progress, The Archaeologist, has been longlisted for the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize 2023.
Glyn Matthews is an ex-teacher of Art, English and Drama, escaping in 1989 to develop as an artist. A long held love of writing eventually prompted him to enhance his images with poetry. Thus, two art forms, that he had been exploring separately, were brought together. The whole was apparently greater than the sum of its parts and appealed to collectors of his work.
Now, no longer needing the sale of artwork to support him and with Covid interrupting his preferred route to market of Craft & Design shows, he began concentrating more on his writing, throwing himself into poetry, flash-fiction and short story. He finds working to prompts stimulating and so the Ó Bhéal competition appealed. His successful poem enabled him to explore repressed emotions based on a true personal experience. He has self-published two books of poetry that he sells alongside his art, maintaining that ‘A picture on the wall dwells always in the corner of your eye. A book will close to dwell quietly in the corner of your mind.’
The 11th Five Words International Poetry Competition runs from Tuesday the 11th of April 2023 (at midday GMT) for 42 weeks, until the 30th of January 2024.
The judge for 2023/2024 is Theo Dorgan. For submission guidelines and previous winners, visit the competition page here.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Competition Winners & Contributors to Five Words Vol XVI;
10:45pm: Open-Mic Session for other poet’s poetry (max 30).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
The 11th Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition will be open for submissions from 1st of May 2023 until the 31st of August 2023.
The judges for 2023 are Colm Scully and Paul Casey. For submission guidelines and previous winners, visit the competition page here.
Ó Bhéal in association with Foras na Gaeilge presents
a hybrid bi-lingual event with
Darragh Ó Caoimh and Dairena Ní Chinnéide
Darragh Ó Caoimh is from Kanturk, Co. Cork and a graduate of the Law and Irish programme in UCC. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship last year and is currently teaching Irish in the US at the University of Montana. His poems have been published in Comhar, Motley and Aneas. Hé was awarded Duais Uí Longáin by the Department of Modern Irish UCC in 2019 and won a prize at the Oireachtas the same year. The composer Criostóir Ó Loinsigh arranged one of Darragh’s poems for choir and it was performed at the Half Moon Festival in Cork in 2020.
Darragh has read his work at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, on BBC Radio Ulster, in the English Market and at the Díseart in Dingle. He was commissioned to write a poem for a documentary on the Innti poets, broadcast on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta in 2021. Darragh was a member of the editorial team of Breac, a new Irish-language magazine from the students of UCC, to which he also contributed news articles, literary criticism and new and translated poetry, as well as a fiendishly difficult crossword!
Ó Cheann Toirc i gContae Chorcaí do Dharragh Ó Caoimh ó dhúchas. Bhain sé céim amach sa Dlí agus sa Ghaeilge in UCC anuraidh. Fuair scoláireacht Fulbright ansin agus tá ina chúntóir teagaisc le Gaeilge in Ollscoil Montana, Meiriceá faoi láthair. Foilsíodh dánta leis in irisí ar nós Comhar, Motley agus Aneas. Bhronn Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge in UCC Duais Uí Longáin air in 2019 as feabhas a shaothair filíochta, agus bhuaigh dán leis duais Oireachtais an bhliain chéanna. Dhein Criostóir Ó Loinsigh, cumadóir, dán leis a chóiriú do chór agus léiríodh é ag Féile an Chorráin i gCorcaigh samhradh na bliana 2020.
Dairena Ní Chinnéide writes in both Irish and English. She is currently Writer in Residence for the language and culture organization Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne. Tairseach (Éabhlóid, 2021) is her latest collection. She was Poetry Ireland’s Poet Laureate for Listowel in 2020 and in 2021 was awarded a Residency in Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She was Irish Language Writer in Residence in DCU in 2019. Dairena has also translated poetry from English, Polish, Lithuanian and Russian into Irish for Munster Literature Centre and IMRAM.
File sa dá theanga í Dairena Ní Chinnéide. I measc 11 cnuasach filíochta atá folsithe aici tá Tairseach (Éabhlóid, 2021), Fé Gheasa : Spellbound (Arlen House, 2016), Cloithear Aistear Anama (Coiscéim, 2013), Labhraíonn Fungie / Fungie Speaks (Ponc Press, 2016). Scríobhann sí leaganacha aistrithe do chuid dá cuid filíochta. ‘Sé’n leabhar DELETED le Salmon Poetry, a céad cnuasach as Béarla (2019). I measc na ngradaim a bronnadh uirthe tá Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship, Dámhachtana Litríochta Gaeilge ón gComhairle Ealaíon agus Ealaín na Gaeltachta.
This event will be both in-person, hosted in the Hayloft bar, upstairs in Long Valley, Winthrop St Cork, as well as on Zoom (which is limited to 100 people). Participation in the open-mic session and five word challenge is open to both in-person and virtual attendees. The session will be live-streamed at obheal.ie/live and via Ó Bhéal’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels. Note to Participants: Our hybrid events are recorded and remain viewable on video via these same channels.
We are no longer posting the zoom link via our social media channels. Upon written request to info@obheal.ie with a sentence outlining your reason for participation, a link to join the session will be emailed to you on the evening of the event, which is expected to run for between 2-3 hours.
7-7.45pm: Poetry-Films (random play from Ó Bhéal’s Poetry-Film comp archives – NOT STREAMED);
8.30pm: Five Word Challenge (max 30 – after the allotted 15 minutes writing time);
9.30pm: Featured Guest Poets (20 minutes each);
10:20pm: Open-Mic Session for original poetry (max 30).
(Entering a Zoom meeting is all explained here >>>. This link provides you with a step-by-step guide and YouTube tutorial if necessary. You should check this out if you’re unfamiliar with the Zoom platform – it also shows you where to download the zoom client/app for your computer/phone. Please Make sure to know where the chat box is and how to mute yourself to reduce background sound.)
