The Corrymeela Podcast
The Corrymeela Podcast is produced by the Corrymeela community, a Christian fellowship dedicated to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. It features conversations and reflections on faith, justice, and building bridges across divides. Episodes share stories, interviews, and insights from the Corrymeela community and its guests.
Episodes
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 7. Rev Harold Good
It was a great privilege to be invited to interview Rev Harold Good in Cushendun at the Old Church Centre. The live recording was part of a series of events held in September in the beautiful Antrim Coast village. Harold was accompanied by his dog much to the enjoyment of the crowd and she makes a few cameos in the audio recording. Harold is most well known for his role as one of two independent w
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 6. Samuel Salim Munayer
This podcast includes a conversation with Palestinian Liberation Theologian
Samuel Salim Munayer. The episode ends with a twenty minute talk that he
gave at a day long conference Corrymeela ran in Belfast in August 2026. The
event was called the Oak Tree Sessions, and was an event platforming voices
articulating Public Theology which engaged with questions of liberation,
ecology, peace, solid
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 5. Monica Mc Williams
This is a live recording of an interview with Monica McWilliams on 29th April 2026 as part of Corrymeela’s 60th anniversary exhibition hosted by the Linenhall Library. Jonny Clark asks Monica questions relating to her life and work as told in her recent memoir “Stand Up, Speak Out”. The political environment of Northern Ireland in the mid 90’s leading up to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was on
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 4. Paul Hutchinson
We talk to Paul Hutchinson about his life and work. Paul is a mediator, a group facilitator, a therapist and an artist. He spent several years as the centre director of Corrymeela and has written the book “Between The Bells”. He has also produced films including Vacancies which is a reflection on the lives lost during the Troubles.
The Corrymeela Podcast. Season 4, Episode 3. Mandy Cook
Mandy Cook is a therapist who works a great deal with those who have experienced religious trauma. In her words she makes "space for unravelling, contemplating & practicing ways to find our way home to ourselves & each other". In this podcast we explore her journey from growing up in the Free Presbyterian church, to being a Queer woman helping people as a psychotherapist. We talk about some of the
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 2. Jo Berry and Pat Magee: Beyond the Brighton bomb
This is a live recording of a conversation held at an event in June 2025
called Borderlands. This is a monthly event run by Jonny Clark from
Corrymeela and a small cluster of friends and partners. Last June it was a
profound privilege to host Jo Berry CBE and Pat Magee at the Black Box for
our event that came days before the annual Day of Reflection. Their story
is one of the most challenging
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 4, Episode 1. Damian Gorman
Damian Gorman is a playwright, poet, and committed peacebuilder who has
used his art to build bridges in theatres, playhouses and peace centres all
over Ireland and the world. He has addressed large audiences and he has
worked with small groups facilitating challenging conversations in places
of conflict. Born in Newcastle, County Down, Damian has devoted much of his
career to exploring the h
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3 special - Pádraig Ó Tuama
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet with interests in language, violence, power, and religion. He has published poetry, essays, a memoir and works of theology. He led Corrymeela from 2014-2019. He currently lives in the USA, in New York City, where he presents Poetry Unbound, is poet-in-residence with Columbia University’s Conflict and Cooperation Centre, and writes. He has two new books for 2025: Kitchen H
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 4
In this last of four special compilation episodes of The Corrymeela Podcast, we revisit interviews with guests who shared their insights on conflict and reconciliation. Featured in this episode are Duncan Morrow, Dong Jin Kim, Christine Bell, Juliane Okot Bitek, Peter Coleman, and Marina Cantacuzino, who bring us their thoughts on peace processes, conflict resolution, and the work of forgiven
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 3
In this third of four special compilation episodes, we return to previous guests who spoke with us about language, storytelling, and the past. Included in this episode are Sarah Perry, Sef Townsend, John Paul Lederach, Richard Holloway, and Nóirín Ní Riain.As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 2
We revisit interviews with guests who spoke with us about place, movement, migration, identity, and belonging. Included in this compilation are clips from Johnston McMaster, Anthony Reddie, Lia Shimada, and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, who offered insights from the fields of history, theology, and the arts, as well as sharing personal stories of identity and belonging.As always, you can download a full tra
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 1
We return to interviews from earlier seasons to hear guests' insights on the pasts, presents, and futures of Britain and Ireland. Featured in this episode are Mary McAleese, Claire Mitchell, Gail McConnell, and Ebun Joseph. As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 6. Sef Townsend
Sef Townsend is a storyteller and musician. He’s collected stories and songs from his travels all around the globe, and has worked with refugees, people in exile and those in asylum detention. Sef’s work has included peace and reconciliation projects, and sharing his stories with audiences in schools, museums, churches, mosques and synagogues around the world. He has co-written two collections of
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 5. Dr. Yousif M. Qasmiyeh
Yousif M. Qasmiyeh is a poet and scholar whose work has appeared in publications including Modern Poetry in Translation, Critical Quarterly, Cambridge Literary Review, New England Review, and Poetry London. His collection Writing the Camp (Broken Sleep Books, 2021), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2022 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Yousif is
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 4. Rev. Dr. Rachel Mann
Rachel Mann is a poet, theologian, broadcaster, and Anglican priest, who, since 2023, has served as Archdeacon of Salford and Bolton. She has published two collections of poetry: her first, A Kingdom of Love (Carcanet, 2019) was highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. The areas covered by her work include theology, cultural history, and heavy metal music; she’s also written a book of re
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 3. Dr. Dong Jin Kim
Dong Jin Kim is a writer and academic whose research interests are in the areas of peacebuilding, humanitarian and development cooperation, theology, and comparative studies of peace processes. He has collaborated with various humanitarian, development, and peace and reconciliation organisations, including Okedongmu Children in Korea, Korean Sharing Movement, and Corrymeela. Jin was a Senior Resea
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2. Jan Carson
Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. She has written three novels, two collections of short stories, and two flash fiction anthologies; her work has also appeared in a number of journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. Her second novel, The Fire Starters (Transworld, 2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. Her
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1. Prof. John Paul Lederach
Prof. John Paul Lederach is a conflict transformation practitioner, writer, and academic. He has worked with communities all over the world, in countries including Somalia, Nicaragua, and Nepal. John Paul is the author of more than twenty books including The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005), When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Sou
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 12. Dr. Peter Coleman
Dr. Peter Coleman is a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, and a renowned expert on constructive conflict resolution, intractable conflict, and sustaining peace. He directs the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution and is co-executive director of Columbia University’s Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity&n
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 11. Dr. Nóirín Ní Riain
Nóirín Ní Riain is an Irish theologian and recording artist who has performed to audiences all over the world. She specialises in Irish traditional music and Gregorian chant, and has collaborated musically with the monks of Glenstal Abbey in Co. Limerick, where she lived for many years. Nóirín is the author of Theosony: Towards a Theology of Listening (Columba Books, 2011), and the autobiogra
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 10. Rev. Dr. Lesley Carroll
Lesley Carroll is an ordained Presbyterian minister. She’s held a number of public roles in Northern Ireland, including serving as deputy chief commissioner at the Equality Commission and as an associate member of the Victims and Survivors Forum. In 2006, she was appointed to a member of the Independent Consultative Group on the Past. She has served as the Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland s
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 9. Juliane Okot Bitek
Juliane Okot Bitek is a poet. Her 100 Days (University of Alberta Press, 2016) was nominated for several writing prizes including the 2017 BC Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, the 2017 Alberta Book Awards and the 2017 Canadian Authors Award for Poetry. It won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Her second collection, A is for A
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 8. Sarah Perry
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Sarah Perry, the internationally bestselling author of the novels Melmoth (Serpent’s Tail, 2018), The Essex Serpent (Serpent’s Tail, 2016), and After Me Comes the Flood (Serpent’s Tail, 2014), and the non-fiction Essex Girls (Serpent’s Tail, 2020). She is a winner of the Waterstone’s Book of the Year Awards and the British Book Awards, and has been nomin
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 7. Richard Holloway
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Richard Holloway, who was the Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1986-2000. Richard is the author of thirty books, including Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics (Canongate, 1999), Stories We Tell Ourselves (Canongate, 2020), and Waiting for the Last Bus (Canongate, 2018). His book Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt (Can
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 6. Prof. Duncan Morrow
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Duncan Morrow. Duncan is a lecturer in politics and Director of Community Engagement at Ulster University. In 1998, he was appointed as a Sentence Review Commissioner, and from 2002-2012 he was chief executive of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council. He has also chaired the Scottish government's advisory group on tackling sectarianism. Duncan’s academic int
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 5. Veena O'Sullivan
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Veena O’Sullivan. Veena has worked for the international relief and development charity Tearfund since 2000. She has focused particularly on HIV, peacebuilding, and violence against women and girls. Originally from Bengaluru in the southern part of India, Veena has lived in Ireland since 2015. In 2021, she became the international director of Tearfund UK. Ve
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 4. Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Dr. Jude Lal Fernando.Jude is a campaigner and peace activist who coordinated the People’s Tribunal of Sri Lanka. He teaches interreligious theology and ethics at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College Dublin, and directs the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice. His publications include Religion, Conflict and Peace in Sri Lanka: The Politics of Inte
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3. Oliver Jeffers
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Oliver Jeffers.Oliver is a visual artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance, and sculpture. Curiosity and humour are underlying themes throughout Oliver’s practice as an artist and storyteller. While investigating the ways the human mind understands its world, his work also functions as comic relief in the face of futility. H
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2. Marina Cantacuzino
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Marina Cantacuzino.Marina is an award-winning British journalist and founder of The Forgiveness Project, a UK charity that uses the real stories of victims and perpetrators to explore how ideas about forgiveness, reconciliation and restorative justice can be used to impact positively on people’s lives. Marina is also the creator of The F Word Podcast, and author of thr
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 1. Prof. Katy Hayward
Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Katy Hayward. Katy is Professor of Political Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and an Eisenhower Fellow. Her latest books are the co-authored Northern Ireland a Generation After Good Friday (Manchester University Press, 2021) and the monograph What do we know and what sh
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2. Trailer
The Corrymeela Podcast is back in 2023 for a second season, with six episodes in the spring and six in the autumn. Host Pádraig Ó Tuama will be speaking with artists and writers and academics about art, conflict, theology, politics, and reconciliation. We’ll be back with you on 7th April, speaking with the brilliant political sociologist Katy Hayward.
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 12. Martin Hayes.
In this, the final episode of the first season of the Corrymeela podcast, Pádraig Ó Tuama speaks to Martin Hayes, the renowned and multi-award winning fiddle player. Martin talks about how music carries culture, memory, place and possibility. As always, Martin has his fiddle with him, so he plays music that demonstrates his insight. We have a full transcript and some reflection questions here
Season 1 Final Episode Trailer: Martin Hayes
A trailer for the final Episode of Season 1 Corrymeela Podcast, featuring the renowned fiddle player Martin Hayes, from East Clare. This special episode features a conversation with Martin about how music carries culture, memory, place and possibility and features him playing the fiddle as well as talking. Full episode will be released on Thursday.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 11. Dr Lia Shimada
Dr Lia Shimada is a a conflict mediator, a theologian and a geographer. She’s used these wide-ranging trainings to work at the interface of migration, ethnicity, change, religion and conflict. In this wide ranging conversation we discuss her experiences working in conflict mediation in Belfast, her experiences of migration, and how living with the death of her newborn son Rowan has influenced her
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 10. Michael Davies.
This episode of the Corrymeela features host Pádraig Ó Tuama speaking with Michael Davies. Michael is the founder and director of Parallel Histories, a UK educational company that offers new ways to study the history of conflict. In this conversation we consider the ways history is taught in Britain, how the crisis of narration can be possibility, and how religion education would benefit by being
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 9. Peter Sheridan
This episode of the Corrymeela Podcast features Peter Sheridan. For many years he was known as one of the senior-most Catholics in the police in Northern Ireland, and his policing career spanned the reform of the RUC into the PSNI. At the age of 48 he made a career change and became chief exec of the peacebuilding charity Cooperation Ireland. As always you can find reflection questions and the fu
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 8. Dr Ebun Joseph
For this episode of the Corrymeela Podcast, host Pádraig Ó Tuama speaks with Dr Ebun Joseph — sociologist, author, speaker, and originator of Ireland’s first course in Black Studies, based at University College Dublin. This wide ranging conversation approaches questions of Irishness and Britishness through narratives of race, discrimination and financial policies in places of employment. You can f
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 7, Prof Christine Bell
Professor of Constitutional Law, Christine Bell, speaks to the Corrymeela Podcast about Peace Treaties, Brexit, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and Human Rights. Christine Bell is a co-director of the Global Justice Academy, and a founder member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement). As always you can find a full transcript of
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 6. The Edge
We were thrilled to speak to Irish rock legend The Edge, one part of U2. Born of Welsh parents and raised in Ireland, Edge has had longstanding interests in questions of politics, identity, belonging and religion. In this episode he speaks about all of these, and speaks, too, about how music has been the deepest call and passion of his life. Always interesting, always interested in learning, he sh
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Bonus: Trailer for The Edge
A brief trailer from the Corrymeela Podcast’s interview with The Edge, the legendary guitarist of the equally legendary Irish band U2. The full episode will be online — and in your podcast feeds — on the morning of Thursday 25th March, 2021.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 5. Claire Mitchell
We talk to the brilliant Claire Mitchell, a sociologist and writer from Belfast about Irishness, Britishness, border crossing, the unexpected advantages of a charismatic evangelical background, observations on religion from outside of religion, her grandmothers, and being a Lundy. As always you can read the full transcript and find some reflection questions for personal or group discussion. Clai
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 4, Professor Anthony Reddie
Our fourth episode is an interview with Professor Anthony Reddie who considers Britishness, Belonging and Brexit through a Black Liberationist Theological point of view. Incorporating stories of his working class upbringing in Bradford, his parents' part of the Windrush generation, and his interest in both theology and history, this interview is wide ranging and informative. As always we have prov
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 3. Rev. Dr. Johnston McMaster
Host Pádraig Ó Tuama interviews Rev. Dr. Johnston McMaster, who has spent decades - both as an ordained minister and as a writer and lecturer - considering the overlap between politics, history and religion in the divided loyalties on both sides of the border in Ireland. Full copies of the transcript — together with four reflection questions for groups or individuals — can be found through this li
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 2. Dr. Gail McConnell
For episode 2 of the Corrymeela Podcast, host Pádraig Ó Tuama talks with the poet Gail McConnell, whose forthcoming collection The Sun Is Open considers an archive-box of her father’s writings, clippings, poems and pamphlets. He was murdered by the IRA in 1984. Gail also speaks about creaturely poetry, parenthood, living with loss, and identity. Full transcript of the conversation, and group discu
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 1. President Dr. Mary McAleese
On this episode of the Corrymeela Podcast, host Pádraig Ó Tuama talks homeplace, religion, British-Irish politics, and leadership with former President of Ireland, Dr. Mary McAleese. This episode is filled with story, insight and the complicated art of compromise and negotiation. You can download the discussion question and episode transcript here. President McAleese’s memoir Here’s the Story is p
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Trailer.
Host Pádraig Ó Tuama gives a preview of season 1 of the Corrymeela Podcast, a season considering Irishness and Britishness in 2021: a year with Covid; a year marking the centenary of the partition of Ireland; and the first year of Brexit. For all our interviews, we asked our guests some 'Very Short Story Questions' - questions you might want to ask yourself, or people you know. You can find these
About the Corrymeela Podcast
During this year of the pandemic, we are not hosting any groups, or conversations at the Corrymeela centre, on the north coast of Ireland. But it is a
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