The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 8. Sarah Perry

Credit: Steve Brading

Pádraig Ó Tuama is joined by Sarah Perry.

Sarah  is 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.

Sarah joins Pádraig to talk about education, morality, our understandings of the past, and the interconnectedness of science and the arts. You can find a full transcript and discussion questions here.

S02E08 - Sarah Perry
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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 (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.

Richard joins Pádraig to share stories of some of the formational moments of his life, as well as talk about religion, doubt, death, and the arts. You can find a full transcript and discussion questions here.

S02E07 - Richard Holloway
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 6. Prof. Duncan Morrow

Duncan Morrow 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. You can find a full transcript and discussion questions here.

S02E06 - Prof. Duncan Morrow
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 5. Veena O'Sullivan

Veena O’Sullivan has worked for the 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 and discussion questions are available here.

S02E05 - Veena O'Sullivan
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 4. Dr. Jude Lal Fernando

Jude Lal Fernando 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 Interpretation of Nationhoods (Lit Verlag, 2013), and Resistance to Empire and Militarization: Reclaiming the Sacred (Equinox, 2020).

Jude joins Pádraig to talk about nationalism, colonialism, interreligious conflict, and his work as a peace activist in Sri Lanka. You can find a transcript and discussion questions here.

S02E04 - Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3. Oliver Jeffers

Photo credit: Yasmina Cowan

Oliver Jeffers 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. His acclaimed picture books have been translated into over fifty languages, and have sold over 14 million copies worldwide.

His original artwork has been exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Oliver grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and currently divides his time between there and Brooklyn, NY.

Oliver joins Pádraig to talk about conflict, creativity, education, perspective, and the art of feeling. As always, a full transcript and discussion questions are available.

S02E03 - Oliver Jeffers
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2. Marina Cantacuzino

Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning British journalist who, in response to the imminent invasion of Iraq in 2003, embarked on a personal project collecting stories in words and portraits of people who had lived through violence, tragedy or injustice and sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result, Marina founded 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. She is also the creator of The F Word Podcast and author of three books on the topic of forgiveness, including Forgiveness: An Exploration, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022.

Marina joins Pádraig to talk about forgiveness, reconciliation, trauma, apology, and the power of a story. As always, a full transcript and discussion questions are available.

S02E02 - Marina Cantacuzino
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 1. Prof. Katy Hayward

Katy Hayward 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 should we do about… the Irish border? (Sage, 2021). She has written and presented to media, policy, civic and academic audiences worldwide on the Irish border, Brexit, and the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Katy joins Pádraig to talk about borders, British-Irish and international relations, and some of the important trends she’s seeing in the political landscape. As always, a full transcript and discussion questions are available.

S02E01 - Prof. Katy Hayward
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2. Trailer

Friends, we’re delighted that 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. There’ll be group discussion questions and full transcripts available.

The first episode of Season 2, coming out on April 7th, will feature the brilliant political sociologist Katy Hayward.

The Corrymeela Podcast is brought to you with generous support from The Henry Luce Foundation, the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, and the Irish Government’s Reconciliation Fund.

The Corrymeela Podcast S02 Trailer
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 12. Martin Hayes.

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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.

Martin Hayes’ website is martinhayes.com His albums can be found online or in music shops or directly from the store on his website.

As we evaluate the first season of the podcast, we have a short feedback form (it should only take you a few minutes to fill in). We'd be delighted to hear from you.

S01E12 Martin Hayes on The Corrymeela Podcast
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Season 1 Final Episode Trailer: Martin Hayes

TRAILER for final Episode of Season 1 Corrymeela Podcast
Corrymeela Podcast
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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.

The full episode will be released on Thursday 6th May, 2021.

The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 11. Dr Lia Shimada

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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 sense of place.

As always you can find some reflection questions and a full transcript here.

This is the second-last episode of season 1 of the Corrymeela Podcast. We would love a few minutes of your time to get some feedback via this link..

You can find out more about Lia Shimada’s work on her website here. If you purchase ‘Mapping Faith; Theologies of Migration and Community’ from the publishers you can get a 25% discount (valid till the end of 2021) by using this code: ‘B25D9F4’ for the ebook and ‘MAPPING’ for the paperback.

S01E11 Dr Lia Shimada on The Corrymeela Podcast
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 10. Michael Davies.

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This episode of the Corrymeela features 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 taught through historical approaches, not only doctrinal ones.

As always you can find reflection questions and the full transcript here. And you can find out more about Parallel Histories here.

As mentioned in the podcast, we would love to get your feedback on the Corrymeela podcast via this short form here.

S01E10 The Corrymeela Podcast with Michael Davies
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 9. Peter Sheridan

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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 full transcript here. And you can find out more about Cooperation Ireland here.

As mentioned in the podcast, we would love to get your feedback on our Corrymeela Podcast via this short form here.

S01E09 The Corrymeela Podcast Peter Sheridan
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 8. Dr Ebun Joseph

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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 find reflection questions and a full transcript here.

You can find out more about Dr Ebun Joseph’s work at University College Dublin here, or follow her on Twitter at @EbunJoseph Her academic text book Critical race theory and inequality in the labour market; Racial stratification in Ireland, can be bought here.

S01E08 The Corrymeela Podcast Dr Ebun Joseph
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 7, Prof Christine Bell

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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 episode, as well as reflection questions, here.

You can find out more about Christine Bell’s work at the Edinburgh Law School here, or follow her on Twitter at @christinebelled

S01E07 Christine Bell on the Corrymeela Podcast
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 6. The Edge

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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 shares what he’s reading, and how he sees the work of reconciliation being important in a changing Ireland, as well as in a changing world.

You can find some reflection questions and the full transcript by clicking here. U2’s website is u2.com

S01E06 The Edge on the Corrymeela Podcast
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 5. Claire Mitchell

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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.

Claire Mitchell’s website has links to her books and articles.

S01E05 Claire Mitchell on the Corrymeela Podcast
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