Arts and Culture

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Cycling on the Irish border and a documentary about the border

 

We recently wrapped up another educational, 5-day cycling trip on the Irish border.  We talk about the history of the border’s formation, the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement, Brexit, current concerns, and hopes for the future.  The trip also shows a beautiful part of the island that tourists rarely visit. Conor Ryan photos from our trip can be viewed here:

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/usirelandalliance/albums/72177720335562455/

 

We don’t typically share photos while we’re on the trip (if there is someone well-known, we don't want to have paps following). But Sonia O’Sullivan cannot go unrecognized. When someone from the local running club in Glaslough spotted her, she kindly agreed to meet the club.  Never have so many turned up so quickly!  You can see the heartwarming videos by scrolling down on @laveryphotoandvideo on Instagram. Sonia is a class act. It was a treat to join her in watching her daughter Sophie race the 1500m in Rovereto, Italy. 

 

Our group was joined for one evening by Áine Lawlor, Glenn Patterson, and Cormac Moore. Áine recently stepped down as the host of This Week in Politics at RTE. Glenn is the Director of the Heaney Center at Queen’s University Belfast and will have a new novel out soon.  Cormac is the author of two books about the border, Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland and The Root of All Evil: The Irish Boundary Commission, is a columnist with the Irish News, and founder and director of the history consultancy company History Link.  We had a great night of conversation with them.

 

We are working on a documentary about the border.  More will be announced as it develops but if you’d like to support the project, we are looking for some development funding.  You can donate at https://us-irelandalliance.org/donate

(If you use the PayPal link, there is a place for a note, and you can write “border doc,” and if you use the other payment methods, just drop me an email at vargo@us-irelandalliance.org if you’d like to let me know it’s for the border doc.)

 

And email me if you’re interested in an executive producer credit at a six-figure price point.

 

And if you are interested in being part of the 2027 cycling trip, email me if you’d like details as we’ll sort the very dates soon.