Cork International Poetry Festival

Banner Image 2026: A Hereford nods in awe at the 5th Battalion North Irish Horse who perished of pestilence and malaric fever on the 4th day of the 2nd Battle of Ombdurman (1988) by Dermot Seymour, oil on canvas, 143 x 200cm

Welcome

Once again we find ourselves in the midst ‘of a low, dishonest decade’ (Auden) where strongmen and women of messianic zeal are pushing language to a service beyond the boundaries of truth and decency. Poetry is the one art form which fights back against this brutal assault on language, which defends the capacity of language to retain truth and the authenticity of personal experience, which allows an individual to speak of their life in language devoid of the corruptions of politics and commerce. Poets constantly remould language to evade these corruptions, evade these efforts at preventing language from being flexible enough to respond to lies and oppression. As a potential audience member we invite you to join us in this struggle, in this project of resisting oppression through language.
This year, we again present to a local audience, which from year to year grows increasingly diverse amidst its solid Irish base, dozens of the world’s vital, essential poets who write not only in English but in Andalucian, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Irish, Spanish, Ukrainian & Welsh. The poets here who write in English write from backgrounds as various as American, Argentinian, Australian, British, Chinese, English, German, Hungarian, Indian, Trinidadian, Scottish, as well as Irish.
We have poets of the Irish emigrant experience as well as the Irish immigrant experience. We present a selection of Irish poets whose accomplishments easily match that of poets with the best international reputations. And we celebrate those achievements not only by presenting opportunities to audiences to listen to the poets declaim their own poetry, but to witness them speaking in plain language on the concerns closest to their hearts:, spirituality, love, grief, struggles of class, colour and sexual identity, the horrors of war and environmental degradation. Because poetry must work hard to evade the corrupting of language, sometimes it is not always immediately accessible. The best of things don’t always come easily. Still we assure you that we are an open and welcoming community and we ask you to trust us with your time and attention.

Patrick Cotter
Festival director and author of Quality Control at the Miracle Factory

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