Ó Bhéal and Poetry-Film

Since October 2008, with the assistance of the Munster Literature Centre and the Cork Film Centre, Ó Bhéal has been promoting the art of the Poetry-Film and has worked in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Literaturwerkstatt Berlin to encourage this art-form in Ireland. The 8th of November 2010 saw Ó Bhéal’s first poetry-film evening, highlighting some of the world’s best poetry-films. Our third poetry-film night on the 12th of November 2012 featured thirty excellent films from Ireland and around the world, as part of the Corona Cork Film Festival programme. 

Since 2013, Ó Bhéal has curated the annual Ó Bhéal International Poetry-film Competition, screening the shortlist of thirty films and awarding one winner the Ó Bhéal prize for best poetry-film. Shortlisted poetry-films since 2012 are also shown at the beginning of Ó Bhéal’s regular poetry events. Poetry-film programmes curated by Ó Bhéal have also appeared at many film festivals worldwide, including Cyclops Poetry-Film Festival in Kiev, Visible Verse in Canada, Cadence: Video Poetry Festival in Seattle, The Belfast Film Festival, IndieCork Film Festival and the Clare Island Film Festival, among others.

Paul Casey 

Paul Casey’s poems have been published in dozens of journals worldwide, and he is working on his third full collection. His collection Virtual Tides was published by Salmon Poetry in 2016, which followed home more or less (Salmon, 2012) and a chapbook, It’s Not All Bad (Heaventree, 2009). He edits The Unfinished Book of Poetry and he promotes poetry & poetry film in his role as director of Ó Bhéal, in Cork city. His poems are recently published in The Stony Thursday Book and Maple Leaf Anthology. Quilt will be published in 2026. His poetry film The Lammas Hireling has been screened worldwide. He has also made a poetry film Awaken, with Cork artist Rosie O’Regan. His poem ‘Marsh’ has been made into a poetry film by Cork filmmaker David Bickley.

Paul’s poetry has been translated into Chinese, Italian, Romanian and Galician.  He has performed for numerous reading series and festivals, including: Beyond Baroque and The World Stage in Los Angeles, The Buffet and The Maple Leaf in New Orleans, Poetry Africa in Durban, Cork Poetry Festival, Cúirt Festival of Literature, Dromineer Literary Festival, the Amergin Festival and the Troubadour in London. He read in the Guild Hall, Coventry, for the state visit of President Michael D. Higgins, and for the End-of-the-Decade Centenaries event at Cork City Hall. 

Colm Scully

Colm Scully is a poet and poetryfilm maker from Cork, Ireland. His poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Southword, Cyphers and Orbis, and his second collection, Neanderthal Boy, was published by Wordsonthestreet Books in 2025. His poetry films have been shown internationally at festivals such as Cork International Film Festival, Art and Visuals Poetry Film Festival Vienna, Athens International Poetry Film Festival and Fastnet Film Festival. His film, Culture Night, won the Deanna Tulley Multimedia Award (Slippery Elm Journal, Ohio) in 2022. He teaches poetryfilm in the community and is a curator at The Ó Bhéal Poetry Film Festival and the Drumshanbo Written Word Festival. You can learn more and watch his films at

 colmscully.com