Show Notes
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 witnesses of the decommissioning of IRA weapons, alongside Fr Alec Reid in September 2005. He performed the same role in the Basque Country as ETA decommissioned and he has advised FARC on decommissioning in Colombia. But with those remarkable roles has come a lifetime of pastoral work as a Methodist Minister, starting in 1968 in the Shankill Road in Belfast as the Troubles broke out. A long held belief he lived by was that people can change, whether it was Martin McGuinness or Ian Paisley. We started the conversation by talking about the gift of his wife Clodagh who sadly passed away in June. Harold showed what leadership can look like from clergy in a divided society and his commitment to dialogue is one of the reasons we have peace in Ireland.
More from The Corrymeela Podcast
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, solidarity and decolonisation.
This is one hour conversation between Jonny Clark and Monica McWilliams, tracing the arc of her life and work. Monica's work is most well known for her work in co-founding the Women's Coalition and thereby obtaining a seat at the negotiating table in the Multi-Party Talks which led to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement.
Paul is a mediator, a group facilitator, a storyteller, a therapist, and overall an artist. He was also the Centre Director of the Corrymeela Community and so witnessed first hand the thousands of individuals that come through our doors each year. His work in community relations here, during and post the Troubles, has led him into a variety of contexts and environments, including for a time sitting on the Parades Commission of Northern Ireland. In addition to his mediation work, he has extensive experience in community arts programmes and he's been behind large events that have sought to help our society deal with the legacy of the past. Paul has also worked in a therapeutic context, helping individuals process and unpack trauma. So his reach in our society has been both wide and deep. He is the author of “Between The Bells”, a book which recounts the varied experiences of many whose lives have been changed by their visit to Corrymeela. He has also produced short films, including “Vacancies”, 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 themes of her work, helping people find the rage to reject the past and to emerge from contexts of religious trauma so they can build hope-filled lives. Mandy is a long time friend of Corrymeela and references her collaboration with us in projects like "Blessed Are The Brave" and the "Becoming Holy" series.
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 inspiring examples of reconciliation we have encountered. Jo and Pat were brought together through tragedy: the Brighton bomb that killed Jo’s father, Sir Anthony Berry. Years later, Jo made the extraordinary choice to seek out the man responsible for his death. What followed was not a moment of closure, but the beginning of a long, evolving journey of dialogue.