Ó Bhéal go Béal is a monthly poetry night in Cork City. It takes place on the second Monday every month at the Hayloft Bar. Each month typically follows the same format with a different guest poet.
07:30 pm Poetry Film Screenings
8:30 pm Five Word Challenge
9:30 pm Guest poet
10:15 pm Open mic: all welcome.
We’re delighted to welcome acclaimed poet Victoria Kennefick, author of ‘Eat or We Both Starve’ and ‘Egg/Shell’
About Victoria Kennefick:
Her debut collection won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award, while ‘Egg/Shell’ won the ‘Farmgate Café National Poetry Award 2025’ and was a Poetry Book Society Spring Choice.
*Egg/Shell* explores early motherhood, miscarriage, gender transition and the dissolution of marriage through monologues, hybrid forms and piercing lyrics.
Read more about Victoria’s work.
Who is it for?
For 18+
Price
Free
When & Where?
Date: Monthly. Second Monday of each month.
Next event is September 14th, 2026
Time: 7.30 pm - 11 pm
Location:
The Hayloft,
Long Valley Bar
Winthrop Arcade,
10 Winthrop St.,
Cork City
T12 NW64
Accessibility
Neurodivergent Friendly, however, the room can get quite full and busy
Not wheelchair accessible (bar is upstairs and quite narrow)
Photo Credits:
Of: Rafael Mendes
By: Ó Bhéal go Béal
Past Monthly Poetry Nights with Ó Bhéal go Béal
August 2026 - Maxi Di Poet & Dangermouse for the Cork Coventry Twin Cities Exchange
About Maxi Di Poet:
Coventry-based poet with Caribbean roots, Maxi Di Poet describes his poetry as therapy and healing, a space where he envelops, embodies, and dances in every feeling. Poetry remains his truest element, keeping him present and helping him never lose his voice.
“Stay tuned you are listening to Maxi Di Poet. I grace the airwaves, touch land and sea. I hope to see you and connect; poetry lives in my every step. So as my heart moves closer to your heart, our shared vulnerability becomes our safety.”
His work embraces collaboration, connection, and vulnerability, bringing people together through shared experience. Inspired by his auntie’s gift for bringing people together, Maxi continues to honour her through every poem he shares.
About Dangermouse:
Made at Fire and Dust, Coventry poet and cleaner Dangermouse is known for crafting poems that are willing to entertain the silly, serious, and strange. His work weaves together everything from cats and crackheads to Sunday dinners at your nan’s.
Winner of the 2021 Positive Images Faith, Hope & Love Poetry Competition, he has been published in several Coventry anthologies and zines, commissioned to contribute to a poetic film about growing up in Coventry, and served as Poet-in-Residence for the Springboard Festival (2023).
July 2026 - About Cassandra Moss:
Cassandra Moss was born in Manchester. She studied English With Film at King’s College London and subsequently worked in the film industry and as an EFL teacher.
After moving over to Dublin, she completed an MPhil in Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Interpret Magazine, Spectra Poets, Lumina Journal, pdf mag, and New York Quarterly.
She has been shortlisted for the Creative Writing Ink Poetry Prize, long-listed for the Fish Publishing Poetry Prize and The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize, and nominated for Best of the Net.
Her debut chapbook, Unstoppable Utopia, is published by Wild Honey Press.
June 2026 - About Colm Scully:
(June)
Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha replaced by Colm Scully - June 8th
Colm Scully is a poet and poetryfilm maker from Cork. His poems have been published in Swerve, Cyphers, Orbis, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword and in many other journals.He previously won the Cúirt New Writing Prize and has been shortlisted in The Gregory O'Donoghue Prize. His award winning films have been shown at Cork Film Festival, Fastnet Film Festival and Bloomsday Film Festival. His second collection, Neanderthal Boy, was published by Wordsonthestreet Press in 2025. You can learn more and watch his films at colmscully.com