Nuala McKeever To Lead 4 Corners Festival Workshop For Belfast Students

IMRO award-winning playwright and broadcaster Nuala McKeever is set to facilitate a special event for sixth form pupils from across Belfast as part of the 4 Corners Festival 2026 programme.

Beyond Boundaries takes place at Ulster University, York Street, on January 16. The event, delivered in partnership with the university, will bring together pupils from across the city to explore how to face change and difference with openness rather than fear.

The workshop sits within the wider 4 Corners Festival programme, which returns to venues across Belfast from January 30 to February 8, 2026, built around the theme Journey.

The festival was created to encourage people to step beyond the physical and psychological “corners” of Belfast through events that bring new places, new perspectives and new connections, with a programme spanning conversation, music, comedy, drama, exhibitions, workshops, schools and sport.

The students taking part in Beyond Boundaries are in their final years of school and preparing to embark on new paths, with new choices and new experiences ahead. Workshops across the morning will focus on building skills and confidence, using the tools of writing and performing to explore communication and difference.

Speaking of the event Nuala said: “I’m thrilled to have been asked to do a workshop with the 4 Corners Festival this year. This is a relationship that just keeps getting better.

“This will be a fun, lively workshop where I will use my experience as a writer and performer to look at how we create ourselves in our lives, like characters in a story. We look at what is possible and what holds us back.

“It’s done with lots of laughs and people who’ve taken part before have all said they feel better about themselves afterwards, so that’s pretty good.

“My hope is that the young people taking part go away with a greater sense of confidence and self-worth.

“I love the fact that young people haven’t had so many years to solidify all the baggage that we all carry. They are usually more open to ideas, less set in their ways and they can be so creative.”

4 Corners Festival organisers have said the 2026 theme Journey reflects how people are shaped by the paths they take through life, including outward journeys across places and inward journeys of change, reflection and growth.

The 2026 programme includes events spanning conversation, music, comedy, drama, exhibitions, workshops, schools and sport, with all events free of charge. 

According to organisers this year’s theme ‘Journey’ reflects the idea that everyone is shaped by the paths they take through life, both outward journeys across places and inward journeys of change, reflection and growth. 

The 4 Corners Festival is supported by The Executive Office's Central Good Relations Fund, The Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund and Belfast City Council Good Relations Fund, St Anne's Cathedral Sitout and Linen Quarter BID.

Students interested in the Beyond Boundaries event are invited to book via their school (limited places available).

Many of the festival’s wider events are free to attend. To find out the full lineup of the and to book your tickets go to 4cornersfestival.com