Irish writer Cathal Póirtéir visited Maribor in 2016 as part of an exchange program for authors who create in small and minor languages. As part of this project, which is called Other Words, ten writers' residencies line up each year. The X-OP Society for Contemporary Art is one of five participating organizations in the field of culture (the rest come from Friesland, Macedonia, Ireland, and Macedonia) participating in a project that started this year and will run until 2019. During the writers' residencies, guest authors present themselves at literary events, presentations, participate in various workshops, round tables, festivals, hold lectures and meet the creators of the literary scene in a local, regional, and national context.

Cathal Póirtéir's lecture on the Irish language and literature, written in Irish at the II gimnazija Maribor, took place on Monday, 3 October 2016, at 9.30 am in the amphitheater of the above-mentioned high school. In front of about two hundred students, Cathal presented some information about the history of the Irish language and its position in modern Irish society, then divided Irish authors into those who wrote or still write in English and those who create only in Irish, or they write in both Irish and English. Cathal spoke about the works of literary giants such as Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and others. Among those writing in Irish, however, he mentioned the following authors, among others: Louis de Paor, Gabriel Rosenstock, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

Literary evening Poetry reading and conversation with Irish writer Cathal Póirtéir and poet Petra Kolmančič took place on Tuesday, 11 October 2016, at 7 pm in the Salon of Applied Arts (Salon. uporabnih umetnosti). The event was organized by the Society for Contemporary Art, the Salon of Applied Arts, and the Embassy of Ireland in Ljubljana. Cathal Póirtéir, Petra Kolmančič, Tina Mahkota, and Helena Fošnjar participated in the event. At the literary reading, Cathal read his poems, which were translated into Slovene by Helena Fošnjar, and Helena read the translations. The event was hosted and interpreted by the one and only Tina Mahkota, who has met with Irish authors many times, translating more than forty translations of prose works and sixty plays by mostly Irish, Scottish and English authors into Slovene. Petra Kolmančič also read her poems from her award-winning collection P (l) ast za p (l) astjo and presented her new poem. Both Petra and Cathal shared their experiences with the literary residency as part of the Other Words program (Petra stayed in Ireland during the summer).

During his writing residency as part of the 'Other Words' program, Cathal also presented himself at two literary events called Young Rhymes (Mlade rime). In Maribor, he performed as a guest of the evening on Wednesday, 12 October, at 8.30 pm in the Gustaf hall in MC Pekarna, and in Koper, he performed together with the poet and co-organizer of Mladi rime Veronika Dintinjana, who read Slovenian translations of his poems. The performance in Koper took place on Thursday, 27 October, at 8 pm at the Koper Youth Center.

On Friday, 21 October 2016, at 12 o'clock, Cathal Póirtéir held a lecture on poetry in Ireland at the Faculty of Arts in Maribor. He included the beginnings of Irish poetry in his presentation dating back to the time of the Irish bards who created poetry and wrote hymns. Cathal mentioned several Irish poets from the early, mid, and late 20th centuries, including Patrick Pearse, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Cathal Ó Searcaigh.
On Tuesday, 15 November 2016, at 6 pm, Irish writer and poet Cathal Póirtéir participated in a literary event connected and interpreted by the poet Veronika Dintinjana. The event took place in the Trubar House of Literature in Ljubljana and was co-organized by the Society for Contemporary Art X-OP and the Embassy of Ireland in Ljubljana. At the event, Cathal and Veronica talked about many authors who write only in Irish, or English or both. Cathal read his poems, which were translated into Slovene by Helena Fošnjar. At the event, Veronika read Slovene translations, during a discussion on contemporary Irish literature, Cathal and Veronika also presented poems by some poets Paddy Bushe, Gabriel Rosenstock, Cathal. Searcaigh in Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Some of Cathal's poems have been translated into Slovene: Salmon, Other World, Midnight Visit, Murmuring.

The residency was part of the Other Words project (2015—2019) co-funded by the Creative Europe program by the European Union. The project was also co-funded by the Minsitry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia and Municipality of Maribor.