Iconic Cork poetry event marks 17th anniversary

IT’S an odd thing: to walk into an Irish bar that is both full of people, and entirely silent. Such is the atmosphere at Ó Bhéal, which takes place on the second Monday of every month, upstairs in the Long Valley.

This unusual silence descends for about 20 minutes when attendees at Ó Bhéal, a Cork poetry organisation, are given five random words, suggested by the crowd, with which to construct a poem. It is one small part of a fascinating bigger picture, devised by poet, founder, and director, Paul Casey.

Ó Bhéal celebrates its 17th anniversary on April 8. I chatted to Paul about the background to this organisation that offers something different, beneath the roof of one of Cork’s longest-serving and best known pubs.

The Beginning

Paul Casey grew up between Ireland, Zambia and South Africa and has worked in a number of fields, primarily film, multimedia and teaching.

Back in 2007, he worried that poetry was both feared and actively disliked by people. Committed to the genre himself, he wanted to present it in a different light.

“When I was educated, we were force-fed difficult poetry at far too young an age,” he says. 

There was an aversion to poetry. Now, thankfully, Leaving Cert students are offered more contemporary work.

There was also a cultural element that the poet questioned.

“My feeling was that poetry events weren’t being inclusive. They were formal affairs and I didn’t feel like enough attention was being given to sub genres. The scene was fragmented, with experimentalists running their own festivals.

“I wanted to create a space people felt safe to enter, where people could play with language. That’s the thinking behind the five-word challenge. It is to encourage anyone and everyone to experience the genre.”

The Long Valley has a relaxed feel with a full bar and a looseness to it; people are free to dip in and out, come and go as they please. This is all part of the philosophy.

“I want to counter that sense of stiffness and make poetry less threatening, less intimidating. People can come and go as they like, engage with it for the first time.”

Poetry Film

Before the five-word challenge, guests are invited to watch screenings of poetry films.

Casey has a background in film, and worked in the industry for 12 years before becoming disillusioned with its commercialism.

He puts his skills to good use and has merged his interests in film and poetry through this passion for poetry film, inspired by a trip to the Berlin Poetry Film Festival some years back.

I remember the Munster Literature Centre asked me to go along to it and over the course of three days, I watched 250 films. I was completely blown away.

“I created my own poetry films then and, since 2013, Ó Bhéal has screened international poetry films at its Winter Warmer events every November.”

The poetry films shown at the start of every Ó Bhéal night are drawn from the organisation’s considerable archives.

Tech-Savvy

Alongside his passion for film, Casey’s technical know-how is certainly in evidence at the Ó Bhéal gatherings. These are hybrid events, thanks to funding secured from the Arts Council.

We became hybrid during the pandemic. We had been a weekly event but moved to monthly. We went straight online. I had a multimedia company in South Africa so my skills proved useful.

“During lockdown the Arts Council were offering money so we applied to upgrade our hardware. The lights and screen and microphones we have all come from that.”

The attendees come from all over, although based in Cork, and the hybridity adds to the global feel.

“People can tune in from anywhere, and on zoom we get a lot of people from the States, from other parts of Ireland and England. We get individuals from other countries too, like Greece, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

“We’re really happy to have kept the international attendees we garnered during lockdown.”

The poet is proud of the diversity of the O’Bhéal gatherings.

“Ireland used to be such a homogenous place to be. In the Eighties, if an African person walked down Pana, heads would turn. I love walking around town now and seeing all the different faces and hearing the different language and accents.”

Celebration

Casey is looking forward to this month’s anniversary.

“We mark this particular event every year. We always have guest poets but the guest poets on anniversary nights are the shortlisted poets and winners of our international five-word poetry competition.

Then we will have our usual open-mic session, but this time people are asked to read poems by anyone other than themselves.

Paul is known by many as a supporter of poetry and poets in Cork city. He is happy to continue Cork’s proud poetry tradition; he is also happy to expand and develop it.

More information is available at www.obheal.ie