4 Corners Festival

NOW firmly established as an annual event, the 4 Corners Festival returns for its 11th outing at the end of this month, running from January 29 to February 5.

THIS year's 4 Corners festival will feature a range of art, music, discussion, sport, debates and faith-based events at venues across Belfast.

TWO Belfast clerics praised by Pope Francis for their involvement in a cross-community festival in the city have met the pontiff in Rome.

IF there is any community who has walked the long and painful journey from enemy to friend, and made the hard choices of forgiveness, repentance and reconciliation, it is here on the island of Ireland.

Pope Francis is set to deliver a personal message to a faith based festival which kicks off in Belfast this weekend.

CATHOLIC priest Fr Martin Magill and Presbyterian minister the Rev Steve Stockman are familiar figures in the Faith matters pages and beyond, not least for their pioneering work with the 4 Corners Festival.

THE 4 Corners Festival opens on Sunday as it embarks on a week-long programme of online-only events designed to 'bring Belfast together'.

Rev Steve Stockman and Fr Martin Magill, co-chairs and founders of the 4 Corners Festival, explain the theme of this year's programme, which starts next week

THE 4 Corners Festival is going fully online this year because of Covid-19, with a programme of 30 live-streamed events planned for between January 30 and February 7.

Witnessing an attack on a Catholic Church in 1970s' east Belfast had a profound effect on the young Alan Abernethy. He went on to become a Church of Ireland bishop but before that, while at Queen's University, he met Brendan McAllister, a Catholic, forging a lifetime's friendship. The two men took part in a 4 Corners Festival event on Sunday and here, Mr McAllister speaks of the 'grace moments' of a friendship that bridges the divisions of our society