Dublin-based poet Hayley McDonnell made her writing debut this October in ALLKINDS gallery’s art-book and online exhibition – a curation of creative works that were produced by Irish artists during quarantine. The collection showcases the scope of creativity among visual artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers and writers in Ireland during a unique period in history.
McDonnell, a 27-year-old mother and social care student from Kimmage, tells me that she only rekindled her lost romance with writing in recent years. “I started writing poetry when I was about 15, but I kind of fell out of love with it as I got older”, she explains. An open-mic night that she attended three years ago, however, lit a fire in her belly to re-engage with her own artistic side. “The past year has just been a flow of writing and it went from there” she explains with child-like glee.
McDonnell’s idiosyncrasy as a poet lies in her tendency to write about current affairs and social issues – “things that I see that I feel are injustices”, she says. “It’s an outlet to explore how I feel about them. You also get to show people another perspective about a situation.” She speaks with the same ardour that can be felt in her poems about the gentrification of Dublin, Direct Provision, abortion, and many other social issues in our world today.
McDonnell initially felt reluctant to share her work online due to a sense of vulnerability: “At first I had no intentions of sharing my work, it was purely for myself.” However, a quote from the author Sarah Davis-Goff – “to be a good writer, you have to be a bad writer first” – prompted her to venture out of her comfort zone. “That really stuck with me”, McDonnell remembers. “I thought: you know what? she’s actually right.” From this point on, McDonnell stopped believing in the fallacy that creative works have to be perfect to be worthy of sharing. Her Instagram page has since developed into an exhibition of her evocative and thoughtful work.
I used to believe in the notion that the arts were a refined thing, but they aren’t – they are for everybody to enjoy
McDonnell has since come into her own as an artist, and is a far-cry from the shy and timid poet that she initially was. “I used to believe in the notion that the arts were a refined thing, but they aren’t – they are for everybody to enjoy”, she says. This understanding is the foundation of McDonnell’s poetry, and reveals itself in the universality of the issues she writes about.
Shedding light on the injustices within society is just as important to McDonnell as the creative side of her work, as she strives to engage with her readers more than she aims for polished perfection. “I don’t want my poetry to be something that you have to find the hidden meanings in”, she says. “I want people to know what they’re reading when they read it.”
McDonnell’s poem “Níl Aon Tinteán Mar Do Thinteán Féin” as part of ALLKINDS gallery, which pays homage to the vibrancy of Dublin city, was only the beginning. “It pushed me in the right direction,” she tells me. Looking to the future, McDonnell outlines plans to have her work published more widely, and to venture into spoken word performance when conditions allow. “There’s some of my poems that ideally, I would perform”, she says. “The thought scares me, but eventually that’s where I want to be.” Having already formed bonds with fellow artists at open-mic nights, and, despite their dejected predictions that gigs won’t be happening until well into the new year, O’Cathain holds tight to the excitement for this new chapter: “The connections are there, it’s just a matter of when.”
ALLKINDS gallery online exhibition is available to view on their website, where a copy of the art-book can also be purchased, with all profits going to Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI).
