Join Irish-American singer-songwriter John Francis O’Mara for an evening of songs and stories exploring love, justice, lament and hope.

John Francis O’Mara is an Episcopalian priest, Liberation Theology scholar, and singer-songwriter whose music has taken him from cathedrals to prisons to UN gatherings.

Drawing on Celtic Christianity, Black liberation theology, Americana, folk, and the Irish-American tradition, his songs explore injustice, grief, democracy, hope, and the liberating heart of faith.

His 2025 album Forbidden Hymns was produced in Nashville with Grammy-winning Ken Coomer, features musicians from the bands of Marty Stuart and Lucinda Williams, and includes a co-write with John Carter Cash. Sojourners described his music as carrying “the haunting quality of Springsteen,” while Shane Claiborne has called him “a poet and instigator of movements.”

John Francis holds degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary and is completing his doctorate in Theology and Social Justice at Howard University.

This concert will be an evening of music, storytelling, lament, hope and holy mischief in the beautiful setting of First Church Belfast.

The event is part of our June Rewilding Faith theme: Rewilding Our Pain — Prayer, Suffering and the Practice of Presence.

Date: Friday 19th June
Time: 7:30–9:00pm
Venue: First Church, Rosemary Street Belfast
Booking: Free
Donations: Donations are warmly invited on the night. Suggested donation £5–£10, or whatever you can afford. All donations will help support John Francis O’Mara’s music and ministry while he is in Ireland.