Inspired to Act

First in a new series.  Gary Lamont runs a successful architectural services business in Ballymena - but he's also a local man and a church leader, still living in the community where he grew up - and committed to the redevelopment of his community, even if that starts with just "pulling a weed".  Gary also wants the restoration of community relations with everyone who now lives there.  And as he explains to Diane and Will, that hope was badly dented with the racially motivated riots in Ballymena in the summer of 2025. This episode is also available in video on Thrive Ireland's YouTube channel.

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Get ready!  Diane Holt and Will Leitch are back with a new series of Inspired to Act from Thrive Ireland for 2026-7! You can listen on all the same platforms as before, but now you can also see us in HD Video with our guests in the studio, over on our Youtube channel.

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In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Nathaniel Jennings isn't easy to place - and it's brilliant!  With an American dad, an English mum, and a Jamaican grandfather, he grew up in Bangladesh, was educated in the UK, and later married a woman from east Belfast - where they now live with their son and daughter.  Working as Intercultural Ministries Director for OMF (UK), he's just the person to help Diane and Will understand good relations among different cultures, and see the arrival of Christians from many other nations as gifts to us...  Last episode in series 3.

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In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

It's time to rethink community relations, because reconciliation almost certainly isn't what you think it is. Even the word itself gets everything from an eye-roll to a myriad different definitions, depending whom you ask. In a special episode, Diane and Will hear about a new study trying to work out what has changed. They're joined by the report author, Dr Cathy Bollaert, and the Very Rev Dr Norman Hamilton - both board members of Contemporary Christianity. The work was also undertaken by Clonard Monastery Belfast, Youthlink, and supported by the Community Relations Council. 

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In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Norman Hamilton is known for his efforts to help broker peace during the Holy Cross dispute in Belfast of 25 years ago.  Anyone aged over 40 will remember the images which flew around the world - as the police and army escorted young children to and from their primary school, in the midst of an adult dispute over interfaces, and claim and counter-claim of sectarian abuse.  Now a retired Presbyterian Minister, Norman tells Diane and Will that for those few months of his life, Holy Cross, confronted him with "public evil, on a grand scale".

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Joe McKeown's life could have been very different.  He grew up in West Belfast during  the Troubles, and saw plenty of conflict, for a time joining in with the recreational stone-throwing when the army or RUC were there. Later he learned  that his grandfather - a demonstrably innocent man - had initially been branded as an IRA gunman after being shot and killed by a teenaged soldier. To one side, a justifiable casualty, to the other, a murder victim. Yet Joe chose not revenge, but peace and reconciliation, rooted in his Christian faith.  Joe now runs the youth service Youthlink - and he tells Diane and Will how his decision was simply "saying 'Yes' to possibility". 

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Ruth Garvey-Williams lives and works in the small Donegal town of Buncrana.  Yet despite living in what's often dubbed "Ireland's forgotten county", she and her family make a huge impact across the island and beyond.  Ruth helped found their church, edits a magazine, and serves with local and national groups tackling suicide, poverty, and immigration issues.  She works as leader, journalist, author, playwright and researcher.  And still she found time to join Diane and Will for a fascinating discussion on the joys - and the cost - of "ministering at the margins".

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In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Dr John Kyle has had 3 intertwined careers, as a GP, as a church leader, and as a local councillor.  Determined to make a difference for peace and reconciliation, he made a choice to join a party which raised a lot of  eyebrows.  He joined the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which had links with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), and served with them on Belfast City Council for well over a decade.  But as Diane and Will discover, there's much more to John's story than that...

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Tim Magowan is a leader, a motivator, and an enabler.  Currently he's Executive Director at the 174 Trust on Belfast's Antrim Road.  But he's also a mentor and a dreamer, with a strong motivation to see change, justice and healing in our communities.  He has experience with organisations like Tearfund, Christian Aid, Corrymeela, and has been both probation officer and PR Executive.  Now he's involved with an initiative called "Circle of Change".  All that means reaching out, or as Tim explains to Diane and Will, he has to "lean out of my bubble."

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In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

"Trust Martin, trust."  That's what Father Martin Magill thinks when he's looking to God for guidance on how to take the next right step for peace.  He's well-known as a campaigner and peacemaker.   In this first episode of a brand new series of Inspired to Act, Martin tells Diane and Will about growing up during the Troubles and how his life as a parish priest in West Belfast is been defined by his determination to make intentional steps for peace, and speak out against what needs to change.

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council