{"id":22306,"date":"2024-02-05T12:05:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T11:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=22306"},"modified":"2024-02-05T12:05:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T11:05:22","slug":"mother-of-inspirational-teen-to-tell-heartfelt-story-at-4-corners-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2024\/02\/mother-of-inspirational-teen-to-tell-heartfelt-story-at-4-corners-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Of Inspirational Teen To Tell Heartfelt Story At 4 Corners Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The mother of inspirational Irish teenager Donal Walsh is set to join this year\u2019s 4 Corners Festival to remember her brave son.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elma Walsh\u2019s son Donal from Co Kerry was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his teens and during his life spread an anti-suicide message of living life to the full.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, after raising awareness through his writing and TV appearances like Brendan O\u2019Connor\u2019s The Saturday Night Show, Donal passed away in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

To honour her son, Elma set up the Donal Walsh #Livelife Foundation to promote her son\u2019s passionate anti-suicide #Livelife message.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking place on Tuesday, February 6 at 7.30pm at Forthspring, Springfield Road, at the event Donal Walsh: A Story of Hope, Elma will join 4 Corners host Gerard Sowney to talk about her story and how she is continuing to honour her son\u2019s legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of the event Elma said: \u201cWhen I was asked to take part and heard what the festival was about, I was delighted to have been asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great initiative to get people from different cultures and backgrounds together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be talking about Donal who was diagnosed terminal but didn\u2019t let that dictate what was left of his time here, he didn\u2019t give up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that people will take the message away from this event that they should not give up on hope, we must all make an extra effort to get more involved & more supportive not only of our own community but to involve other communities also.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now in its 12th year, the 4 Corners Festival was conceived as a way to inspire people from across the city to transform it for the peace and wellbeing of all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival features a range of music, discussion, sport and faith-inspired events and will run from February 1 to 11 in venues in all four corners of the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Donal Walsh: A Story of Hope the Fitzroy Collective will be performing songs from their Gospel According To Sinead O\u2019Connor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shannon Campbell, 4 Corners committee member, said: \u201cWe are very much looking forward to hearing from Elma Walsh at this year\u2019s festival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cElma\u2019s reputation precedes her as being an uplifting, inspiring presence wherever she goes – just as her son, Donal, whose story she\u2019ll be telling – was. Donal has touched the lives of countless young people during both his life on earth, and indeed since his passing, and 4 Corners are honoured to be a part of sharing Donal\u2019s important hope filled message over 10 years on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sure to be a very special evening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme OUR STORIES\u2026Towards A Culture Of Hope is about showcasing our city and our people\u2019s stories reflecting the essence of belonging and unity within the city\u2019s diverse community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The upcoming festival\u2019s suite of events is designed to entice people out of their own \u2018corners\u2019 of the city and into new places where they will encounter new perspectives, new ideas and hopefully meet new friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

All festival events are free of charge, with most open to the public, although advance booking of tickets is mandatory. Select events will be streamed online on the official 4 Corners Festival YouTube and Facebook accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information about the festival and to keep up to date with programme updates go to <\/b>4cornersfestival.com<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother of inspirational Irish teenager Donal Walsh is set to join this year\u2019s 4 Corners Festival to remember her brave son. Elma Walsh\u2019s son Donal from Co Kerry was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his teens and during his life spread an anti-suicide message of living life to the full.\u00a0 Sadly, after raising awareness … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1652,1783,1651],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22308,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22306\/revisions\/22308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}