Take five… with Steve Stockman and Martin Magill, Co-founders of the 4 Corners Festival

Favourite book?

Steve Stockman: Everyone should read this year’s Booker Prize winning Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. I also love Colum McCann and Claire Keegan… but my all time favourite is The Atlas Of Forgotten Places by Canadian Jenny D Williams, set in Uganda, where I read it on sabbatical in 2018. I felt that book and felt that it felt me.

Martin Magill: It would have to be Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Greg Boyle, the inspirational founder of Homeboys, the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry programme in the world, though Guard Your Heart by local writer Sue Divin is in there too with Into the Silent Land: The Practice of Contemplation being my favourite spiritual book, after the Bible of course.

​Favourite song?

SS: Too many but if push came to shove it has to be A Case of You by Joni Mitchell (Canadian again!). An vulnerable love song with a wee spiritual verse thrown in.

MM: I love Time to Go Inward by Rodney Crowell with the powerful lyrics including “It’s time to go inward, time to be still, If I don’t do it now I don’t believe I ever will.”

Favourite film?

SS: Shawshank Redemption is the serious one and Bruce Almighty the comedy. They are the two that I have used most for sermon illustrations.

MM: I suppose not just for this time of the year but for any time of the year, it has to be It’s A Wonderful Life with lots of tissues beside me.

Bruce Almighty

​Favourite place?

SS: Oh, I love Cape Town, Vancouver, Arua in Uganda, but we have been in love with Ballycastle for 28 years and go up there any time we can.

MM: I have a particular fondness for the Lake District having spent several holidays there; closer to home, McArt’s Fort on the Cavehill Hill on a good day looking over Belfast is really hard to beat.

​Favourite meal?

SS: I do love the seafood boxty in Holohan’s Pantry but if treating myself in a restaurant it would have to be steak and champ.

MM: My real favourite would have to be a really good floury potato, lots of butter and a glass of milk, but if going out somewhere it’s likely to be something Italian, having spent four years in Rome.

​The 4 Corners Festival takes place from February 1-9, 2025. For more information go to 4cornersfestival.com