JOURNALIST Stephen Nolan talks to two Fermanagh natives about their journeys with faith as he explores his own spirituality in a new BBC documentary, ‘Finding Faith With Stephen Nolan’, that opens with Stephen having a frank conversation with Fr. Brian D’Arcy about his personal struggle with faith.

In the documentary, we see Stephen exclaim: “I can’t do it, Brian, I can’t believe. I want to – I can’t.”

The Fermanagh priest looks thoughtful as he responds: “Yeah, some days I’m like that myself, you know! It depends what you want to do, what you think belief is.”

As their conversation on belief continues, Stephen tells Fr. Brian that he believes that “when death comes to anybody, we stop and we are nothing”.

‘Fairytale’

He continues: “Our brains can’t cope with that, so we’ve invented this fairytale [of God or the Gods or any higher power].

“I’m not saying that out of disrespect, because I am desperate to believe.”

Stephen also meets with Melanie Grimsley, who is originally from Kesh but currently lives in Belfast.

In an archive clip from his talk show, The Nolan Show, which is included in the documentary, Stephen introduces Melanie, explaining that at the age of two, she suffered horrific burns in an unexplained car fire which claimed the life of her older sister.

Speaking to Stephen for the documentary, Melanie explained that she “struggled to see God in [her] picture”.

“I think you struggle with the concept of ‘Where was God while my car was on fire’,” she said.

However, later in the documentary Melanie shares how she rediscovered her faith and answers Stephen’s hard-hitting questions surrounding this.

Finding Faith With Stephen Nolan is made by Third Street Studios for BBC Northern Ireland, and was first broadcast on Monday, April 12 on BBC One Northern Ireland. It is available on the BBC iPlayer.