The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 12. Martin Hayes.

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 latest short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Penguin in April 2024. Jan is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.

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 Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation (University of Queensland Press, 2010), and Reconcile: Confict Transformation for Ordinary Christians (Herald Press, 2014). His writing explores social healing, spirituality, and the role of the arts in conflict transformation. John Paul is Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and a senior fellow at Humanity United.As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions.

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 (AC4). Peter is also the co-creator of the Conflict Intelligence Assessment and the Polarization Detox Challenge. His most recent book, The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization was released by Columbia University Press in 2021.As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions. You can sign up for the Polarization Detox Challenge via this link.

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 autobiography Listen With the Ear of the Heart (Veritas, 2010). She was ordained as an interfaith minister in 2017, and now presides over ceremonies to mark births, marriages, separations, deaths, and other important milestones. Her book Sacred Rituals: A Simple Book of Everyday Prayer was published by Hachette Books Ireland in 2023.A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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 since 2019.A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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 Acholi (Wolsak and Wynn, 2022), was shortlisted for the 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and is a finalist for the 2023 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and the 2023 Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes. Her most recent collection of poetry, Song & Dread (2023), is published by Talonbooks under the name Otoniya J. Okot Bitek. She is an assistant professor of Black Studies, joint appointed in English and Gender Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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 nominated for major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award. She is the Chancellor of the University of Essex, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her essays have been published in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Observer, and the London Review of Books. She has been the UNESCO City of Literature Writer in Residence in Prague, and the Writer in Residence at the Savoy Hotel in London. Her no. 1 bestseller The Essex Serpent was adapted for television starring Clare Danes and Tom Hiddleston in the lead roles. Her new novel, Enlightenment, will be published by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Harper Collins (US) in May 2024.A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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 (Canongate, 2012) was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and won the PEN Ackerley prize. He was chairman of the Scottish Arts Council from 2005-2010, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. A frequent broadcaster, he has presented a number of television series and radio programmes, including Three Score Years and Ten for BBC Radio 4. A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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 interests include conflict, ethics, and religion.Duncan joins Pádraig to talk about the shifting nature of our identities, the importance of relationship in politics, and the necessity of acknowledging complicity in conflict.A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.

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. Veena joins Pádraig to talk about the complexities of ‘relief and development’, and what sustains her in her work. A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.