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 stories that emerged from the Troubles, fostering dialogue and understanding through theatre, poetry, and community engagement. He has recently taken up the role of Head of Peacebuilding at the brilliant charity Children In Crossfire.
Recently, he served as International Resident Artist at the Playhouse’s Theatre and Peacebuilding Academy, developing the stage production Anything Can Happen…, which reflects the voices of those affected by conflict, particularly in 1972, the most bloody year of the Troubles. He is a fellow of the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights, underscoring his commitment to ethical storytelling as a vehicle for reconciliation.
In this conversation with Jonny Clark we speak generally with Damian about his life and his work. Towards the end of the interview we spoke about a recent work of his called “BOY” which was written about the life of his older brother Gerard, a victim of clerical sexual abuse. For support if this conversation was triggering contact Nexus NI
Among so many works written by Damian, in the last year he has written a musical drama honouring the life of John and Pat Hume, called Beyond Belief and he has also written a play called “Witness” about the inspirational life of peacebuilder and community activist, Richard Moore.
His most recent publication is B O Y S which is a limited edition made up of scripts from WITNESS and from BOY about his brother’s abuse. His selected poems and memoir “As If I Cared” is available from Blackstaff Press or good bookshops.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3 special - Pádraig Ó Tuama
Oct 29, 2025
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 Hymns (CHEERIO and Copper Canyon Press) and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (Canongate and WW Norton).
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 4
Oct 22, 2025
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 forgiveness. You can find a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 3
Oct 15, 2025
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
Oct 08, 2025
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 transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Compilation 1
Oct 01, 2025
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
May 10, 2024
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 short stories: London Folk Tales for Children (The History Press, 2019) and London’s River Tales for Children (The History Press, 2022).
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 5. Dr. Yousif M. Qasmiyeh
May 03, 2024
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 Writer in Residence for Refugee Hosts - a research project at University College London. His latest collection, Eating the Archive, was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2023.
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 4. Rev. Dr. Rachel Mann
Apr 26, 2024
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 reflections for Lent based on the works of Jane Austen. Rachel has appeared as a panellist on the BBC Radio 4 programmes The Moral Maze and Beyond Belief, and is a regular contributor to Thought For The Day. Her second poetry collection Eleanor Among the Saints was published by Carcanet at the start of 2024.
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 3. Dr. Dong Jin Kim
Apr 19, 2024
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 Research Fellow in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin. He was a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace on the Korean Peninsula at the South Korean Ministry of Unification from 2020 to 2022. Jin is the author of The Korean Peace Process and Civil Society: Towards Strategic Peacebuilding (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and co-editor of Reconciling Divided States: Peace Processes in Ireland and Korea (Routledge, 2022, with David Mitchell).
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2. Jan Carson
Apr 12, 2024
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1. Prof. John Paul Lederach
Apr 05, 2024
As always, you can download a full transcript and discussion questions. You can sign up for the Polarization Detox Challenge via this link.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 11. Dr. Nóirín Ní Riain
Nov 03, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 10. Rev. Dr. Lesley Carroll
Oct 28, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 9. Juliane Okot Bitek
Oct 20, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 8. Sarah Perry
Oct 13, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 7. Richard Holloway
Oct 06, 2023
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 6. Prof. Duncan Morrow
May 12, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 5. Veena O'Sullivan
May 05, 2023
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 4. Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
Apr 28, 2023
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3. Oliver Jeffers
Apr 21, 2023
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. 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. A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2. Marina Cantacuzino
Apr 14, 2023
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 three books on the topic of forgiveness, including Forgiveness: An Exploration, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022. A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2, Episode 1. Prof. Katy Hayward
Apr 07, 2023
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. A full transcript of the episode, along with group discussion questions, is available here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 2. Trailer
Mar 31, 2023
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 Tuamawill 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.
Corrymeela Podcast Feedback
May 06, 2021
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The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 12. Martin Hayes.
May 06, 2021
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.
Season 1 Final Episode Trailer: Martin Hayes
May 04, 2021
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
Apr 29, 2021
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 10. Michael Davies.
Apr 22, 2021
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 taught through historical approaches, not only doctrinal ones.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 9. Peter Sheridan
Apr 15, 2021
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 8. Dr Ebun Joseph
Apr 08, 2021
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 7, Prof Christine Bell
Apr 01, 2021
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).
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 6. The Edge
Mar 25, 2021
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Bonus: Trailer for The Edge
Mar 21, 2021
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
Mar 18, 2021
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.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 4, Professor Anthony Reddie
Mar 11, 2021
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.
Copies of Prof Anthony Reddie’s book Theologising Brexit will be available in paperback from March 31st 2021 from Routledge. A link to his academic pages at Oxford is here.
The Corrymeela Podcast, Season 1, Episode 3. Rev. Dr. Johnston McMaster
Mar 04, 2021
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.
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 significant year in Irish and British history, marking the centenary of the partition of Ireland, and the first year of Brexit. So, we are bringing twelve conversations from our kitchen table to yours; conversations that discuss Irishness and Britishness through the lenses of politics, history, art and theology. So pull up a chair, listen with us as we listen, and talk with us as we talk. Every episode ends with our guest telling a very short story from their life, so don’t forget to listen right to the end. You can hear all the episodes (one released every Thursday) below, or you can subscribe on your favourite podcast app. With deep thanks to our funders: The Henry Luce Foundation, the Irish Government’s Fund for Reconciliation, the Community Relations Council, Northern Ireland, and the Friends of Corrymeela.
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