The Corrymeela Podcast

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...

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.

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...

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 and...

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 human...

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...

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 forgive...

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 .

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 tr...

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 .

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...

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 . You...

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 r...

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 Rese...

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...

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...

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...

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 autobiog...

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...

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...

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...

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 (Cano...

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 in...

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.  V...

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 In...