Poet Colin talks his way into All-Ireland final

A FORMER Banbridge man has won the Belfast heat of an All-Ireland poetry slam and now goes through to the final which takes place in Dublin on National Poetry Day on October 7.

Colin Hassard, whose parents live at Bannview Heights in the town, says he is “delighted but slightly nervous” at the prospect of competing in the high profile knockout poetry contest organised by Dublin poet and performer, Stephen Smith.

To reach this stage, Colin, who works in the Stranmillis branch of the Northern Bank, composed and recited his own poetry at the Belfast heat which was held on Friday, September 10, in the Safe House Art Gallery.

“At the start, there were nine of us competing in the first round, and then I ended up being in the final three,” he said. “I read two of my own poems - ‘You’re an Abattoir’ which is all about falling in love with the wrong person and which was written from personal experience - and another entitled ‘We Were Born’ which is about growing up in the Eighties.

“It’s great to get some recognition, but it will be slightly nerve-wracking competing in Dublin. Performance poetry is all about the performance and connecting with the audience, so it is a little bit like acting out a monologue on stage which you have written yourself.”

An admirer of well known classical poets such as Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath, Colin hoovers up poetry voraciously in his spare time and has been penning his own words since he was a pupil at Banbridge Academy.

A Media Studies graduate from the University of Ulster at Coleraine, he is also involved in the music scene and enjoyed brief success with a song ‘England will be Missed’ which was written for and performed with his band, the C64’s. “The song reached number one in the Northern Ireland charts was all to do with national identity,” he says. “It was written as a sort of protest song in the genre of the Clash or Jam era.”

Writing poetry also takes him on a different creative dimension - although his friends don’t always get it: “Some of my friends just can’t get their heads around me and my poetry, but just let me get on with it,” he says. “They can’t always understand my passion for poetry, but it connects with me - and I hope in Dublin it will connect with the audience as well.”

And, despite - maybe because of - the fact he works in the rather sterile world of banking, poetry is the creative tap he can’t turn off. “I haven’t been practising in front of the mirror yet, but a friend, Seamus Fox from Craigavon, who won the championship last year, is helping me with things like voice projection, pronouciation and movement, which are all important.

“I also have a Northern Ireland accent, of course, so I will have to reduce the speed of my delivery so, at the very least, people in the audience will understand what I am saying!”