Join us for a keynote address with acclaimed poet, theologian, conflict resolution mediator, and great creative thinker of our time, Pádraig Ó Tuama.
This event is free and open to all. Registration is not required.
For more information about the Art of Encounter Symposium, click here.
“Pádraig Ó Tuama is an extraordinary person, whose influence extends quietly and gracefully across the world. His poetry bears these same qualities and brings him close. It is a gift to us all.” —Krista Tippett, Creator of On Being
“Ó Tuama has become a shepherd in the shambolic tradition of contemporary spirituality, treating poetry as a form of agnostic prayer. Poetry, for him, is the language the heart speaks not when it reaches for some externalized divinity but when it seeks to understand itself.” —The New Yorker
“Putting to work poetry and gospel, side by side with story and Celtic spirituality, Ó Tuama explores ideas of shelter along life’s journey, opening up gentle ways of living well in a troubled world. The reader can’t help but be drawn in, slip-sliding into the harbor of the author’s soulful words.” —Chicago Tribune
About Pádraig Ó Tuama:
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet, theologian, conflict resolution mediator, and the author of Poetry Unbound: 44 Poems On Being Together (2025), Kitchen Hymns (2025), Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love (2024), Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (2022), Feed the Beast (2022), Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community (2017), In the Shelter (2015), Sorry for your Troubles (2013), and Readings from the Books of Exile (2012), which was longlisted for the 2013 Polari First Book Prize.
For Ó Tuama, religion, conflict, power, and poetry all circle around language, that original sacrament. Working fluently on the page and in public, Ó Tuama is a compelling poet, teacher, and group worker, and a profoundly engaging public speaker. He has worked with groups to explore story, conflict, their relationship with religion and argument, and violence. Using poetry, group discussion, and lectures, his work is marked both by lyricism and pragmatism, and includes a practice of evoking stories and participation from attendees at his always-popular lectures, retreats, and events.
His poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Academy of American Poets, Post Road, cream city review, Holden Village Voice, Proximity Magazine, On Being, Gutter, America, and Seminary Ridge Review.
Pádraig Ó Tuama holds a BA Div validated by the Pontifical College of Maynooth, an MTh from Queen’s University Belfast, and recently received a PhD in Theology through Creative Practice at the University of Glasgow, exploring poetry, Irishness, and religion.
He splits his time between Belfast, Ireland, and New York City.
Originally published at raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.