Poetry Contest Ireland 2026, Enter Online
Quick answer: Enter Writory's monthly poetry contest from Ireland, listed by Poetry Ireland. Cash prizes, a certificate for every poet, results on the 30th every month.
Ireland has two Nobel laureates in poetry and treats the art as public property. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, Eavan Boland, Michael Longley, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill writing in Irish, and Seamus Heaney digging with his pen, have all been quoted at kitchen tables and not only in lecture halls. Poetry Ireland publishes the Poetry Ireland Review and runs Poetry Day Ireland, Cuirt fills Galway each spring, and Listowel Writers' Week has been going for decades. Writory is listed by Poetry Ireland, and it opens a competition on the 1st of every month and closes it on the 25th.
Winners are announced on the 30th and paid cash prizes, while every poet who entered receives a participation certificate. Poems are marked on five criteria, language, theme, emotion, structure and creativity, itemised inside your profile. Work as Gaeilge is accepted without translation, alongside English and any other language you write in, and the minimum age is 13. Over 50 countries have been represented in past entries, which puts an Irish poem in front of readers well outside the island. And Irish poems already place here: in July 2026 they took two of the top ten, Pauline Murphy's It's a Girl third at 95 and Gerald Sweeney's A Box of Dark sixth at 89, both on the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.
Ireland produces more celebrated poets per head than anywhere on earth, four Nobel laureates in literature and a living tradition running from Yeats through Heaney to the present, yet the competition calendar is annual and scarce. Poetry Ireland anchors the scene and lists this contest; the gap it fills is the eleven months a year when the big Irish prizes are closed.
Every entry is read blind and scored on five criteria, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, with the full breakdown returned to the poet. Poems in Irish are as welcome as poems in English, and the entrant pool spans more than fifty countries, so a poem from Cork is measured in genuinely international company.
The month closes on the evening of the 25th, Irish time, results arrive by the 30th, winners are paid through PayPal, and every entrant receives a certificate carrying their name and the title Writorian. Rights never leave the poet.
Writory is a monthly poetry competition listed by Poetry Ireland, open to poets across the island writing in English or in Irish, with cash prizes and a certificate for everyone who enters.
Why enter
- Irish poems took 3rd and 6th place in July 2026, Pauline Murphy's It's a Girl and Gerald Sweeney's A Box of Dark, so this is a board Irish work actually reaches.
- Poems in Irish are read in Irish. No English version is required, and the same five criteria apply either way.
- The deadline returns every month, a different rhythm from the annual awards and open calls that dominate the Irish calendar.
- You are not left guessing. A criterion by criterion score is filed to your profile whether the poem places or not.
- Everyone on the island can enter, north and south, and Irish poets settled in Britain, America or Australia are equally eligible.
What winners and entrants receive
- Prize money for the poets who top the monthly result.
- A participation certificate for every Irish entrant, worth keeping alongside your publication credits.
- Take a win and Writory waives the fee on your next entry.
- Enter three months consecutively and you earn one free entry on top of that.
- Writory's public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard carries the month's ten best poems.
Lyric poems, aisling inspired vision poems, caoineadh laments, ballads, sonnets, dan in Irish and free verse are all accepted here.
Key facts
- Entries open the 1st, close the 25th at 11:59 PM IST, results on the 30th.
- One poem $5, two poems $8, five poems $15 (Rs 150 / Rs 220 / Rs 450 in India).
- Every poem scored by human judges on five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme.
- A participation certificate for every entrant, not only winners, and the score is visible in your profile.
- Cash prizes for winners, free entry the following month for winners, open worldwide from age 13, any language.
Questions
Is Writory open to poets in Ireland, and is it a legitimate listing?
It is open across the island, north and south, to anyone aged 13 upward, and Poetry Ireland carries Writory among its opportunities. Submission and payment happen on the site, and nothing has to be posted.
How does a small monthly contest keep its judging honest?
By showing the marks. Five criteria, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, are applied to every entry, and each poet can open a profile and read their own figures instead of taking the result on trust.
What is the entry fee for Irish poets?
The fee is taken in US dollars rather than euro. You pay $5 to enter one poem, $8 to enter two, or $15 to enter five. Winners enter free the month after they win, and three months of continuous entry earns a free entry too.
How quickly are results published?
The cycle is tight. Nothing can be submitted after the 25th, the winning poems appear on the 30th, and every entrant's criteria scores are posted to their own profile that day.
When is the deadline in Irish time?
Entries close on the 25th of every month at 11:59 PM Indian time, which is around 7:30 PM in Ireland in summer and 6:30 PM in winter. Results are published by the 30th of the same month.
Can I submit poems in Irish?
Yes. The contest accepts poems in any language, Gaeilge included, judged on the same five criteria as everything else. The judging pool reads multilingual work every month.
What does an Irish entrant actually receive?
A blind judged score out of 100 with the five part breakdown visible in your profile, a participation certificate carrying your name and the title Writorian, and for winners, a cash prize paid by PayPal plus free entry to the following month.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
Enter the September contest · All poetry competitions 2026: deadlines & prizes · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems