Carafest faith & reconciliation festival

Carafest faith & reconciliation festival

Longtime festival contributor and friend and leader of the Corrymeela Community, Pádraig Ó Tuama writes this about the inaugural Trust Greenbelt-supported Carafest in Northern Ireland this April (14 – 17th).


We are delighted to announce Carafest, a Festival of Faith and Reconciliation on the stunning north coast of Ireland. Overlooking Rathlin, Scotland, on a cliff, at the gorgeous Corrymeela centre.

We have gathered a wonderful group of poets, musicians, speakers, writers, healers, theologians and practitioners to contribute to a weekend of friendship, food and community.

For the music-minded, we have he sensational Duke Special, the beautiful Blue Rose Code, the awesome Katie Richardson and the exquisite Alanna Henderson (collaborator and cellist with Hozier). We’ve more, but we’ve run out of adjectives.

For talks, we have Jo Berry and Pat Magee, speaking about their unlikely connection after Jo’s father was killed in an IRA bomb planted by Pat; we have Katy Radford giving a Jewish view on the Irish Troubles; we have Siobhán Garrigan speaking about Forgiveness and Theology; we have Brendan McAllister, senior mediator with the UN, and we have the Corrymeela programme team.

We’ve got panel discussions on youthwork, politics and asylum seeking, and workshops from Corrymeela staff.

Jan Carson, Moyra Donaldson, Shirley McMillan and Pádraig Ó Tuama are some of the writers who’ll share their words with us. For the devout, we’ll have Quaker silence, Taizé:Tenebre and a Dawn Service (followed by an Irish take on pain au chocolat). Paul Hutchinson is curating a film-stream for the weekend, and we have a young person’s programme (for ages 4-15) going on each day. Spaces are limited, because we’re providing beds.

Good poets borrow, great poets steal is an old adage. We know this well, because we’ve stolen all our good ideas from the beautiful people of Greenbelt. We’d be delighted if you’d join us for a little taste of Greenbelt on the north coast of Ireland this Easter.

Enormous thanks and love to Trust Greenbelt.

More Line-up and costs can be found at www.corrymeela.org/carafest


Carafest – a festival of faith and reconciliation
at Corrymeela from 14-17 April 2017
www.corrymeela.org/carafest

Supported by Trust Greenbelt