Cork woman named as winner of Farmgate Café National Poetry Award

Irish Examiner

09-05-2025

Cork poet Victoria Kennefick has been named as the winner of the 2025 Farmgate Café National Poetry Award ahead of an award presentation to be held next week.
Seven poets were shortlisted for the award, which celebrates books of poems published by Irish poets, but it was Kennefick's second collection of poems Egg/Shell that took the title this year, following in the footsteps of fellow Cork poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, who was named the overall winner in 2024.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, artistic director of the Munster Literature Centre, Patrick Cotter, congratulated Kennefick on her recognition, describing her as an 'up-and-coming young poet'.
Cotter also acknowledged the talent among the entire shortlist for this year's Award, including the established Mary O'Malley and Patrick Chapman.
Kennefick won the award for her second collection of poems entitled Egg/Shell. Her first collection, Eat or We Both Starve, focused on subjects such as eating disorders, Catholicism, and Irish history. In this collection, she continues to dive deep into emotional themes, from early motherhood and miscarriage, to the impact of a spouse's gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage.
Patrick Cotter of Munster Literature Centre, poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Farmgate owner Rebecca Harte at last year's award. Picture: David Creedon
Speaking about the significance of the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award, Cotter said: 'There are so few prizes, believe it or not, for books of poems published by Irish poets. We were lucky that the Farmgate, a small, local family business, had the generosity to step in and sponsor a National Book Award.
'It gives poets the chance to have their work highlighted in a national newspaper, which they wouldn't have otherwise, so hopefully brings new readers to them, and the prize itself also helps to validate a poet's work.'
Rebecca Harte of Farmgate said the café/restaurant in the English Market was delighted to support the poetry prize. 'The Munster Literature Centre are longterm friends of Farmgate and have created this link with the poets. Poetry is food for the soul. Congratulations to everyone on this year's shortlist,' said Harte.
Touching on the importance of poetry as an artform and the the long-standing cultural significance of poetry in Ireland, Cotter said: 'The importance of poetry as an artform can be gauged by the fact that it's been entangled in our culture for thousands of years now, ever since Homer, and how major poets such as Yeats and Heaney have their work quoted at major public functions and it's a core part of the educational process.'
Cotter described poetry as 'a rhythm that is almost written into our DNA' and likened it to the importance of traditional music in Irish culture.
'I think poetry has always been prominent in our culture, and that's been highlighted through poetry's close relationship with music. Traditional music has always been important to Irish culture. Poetry is a rhythm that is almost written into our DNA - it's important on all those levels," said Cotter, who will also be launching his latest collection the festival.
"Any nation has to distinguish itself by its culture… and poetry is just one of the constituents of culture that gives a nation a sense of meaning and identity.'
Gustav Parker Hibbett was among the other poets on the shortlist.
The shortlist for the 2025 Farmgate Café National Poetry Award included What Remains the Same by Alvy Carragher (The Gallery Press); The Following Year by Patrick Chapman (Salmon Poetry); In Spring We Turned to Water by Michael Dooley (Doire Press); High Jump as Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett (Banshee Press); Egg/Shell by Victoria Kennefick (Carcanet Press); The Shark Nursery by Mary O'Malley (Carcanet Press); and Harmony (Unfinished) by Grace Wilentz (The Gallery Press).
The award presentation will take place on Tuesday, May 13 as part of the Cork International Poetry Festival. For details, see www.corkpoetryfest.net