Cycling Along the Irish Border with a Singer-Songwriter | Bloody Sunday & Living Off-Grid

Together with singer-songwriter Paul O’Brien i’m cycling from Derry to Dundalk, all along the border between Northern Ireland and (the Republic of) Ireland, within our bike bags a violin and a guitar. Along the way we meet many people who grew up in the borderland.

We follow different cycling routes: 92, 95, 91 and 9. They all cross the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland plenty of times. We want to enjoy the scenery, but also get to know the people a bit more. What was it like, to grow up in the borderland, and what is it like now? Paul is from Dublin and lives in The Netherlands, I’m from The Netherlands, but lived in Ireland for a while. Paul will be writing songs on the way.

BICYCLE GEAR
Bike: idworx oPinion BLT

oPinion BLT

Bike Panniers: Ortlieb Back-Roller Design Sierra https://de.ortlieb.com/en/products/back-roller-design?variant=49067040047436
Handlebar Bag: Ortlieb Ultimate Free
Ultimate Free

CAMERA GEAR
Camera: Sony A7IV
Lens: Sony FE 24-105mm F/4.0 G
Extra lens: Sony FE 20mm F/1.8 G
Microphone: Røde VideoMic PRO+
Another microphone: Røde Lavalier GO
Stand: Joby GorillaPod 5K
Drone: DJI Mini 4 Pro
Extra camera: iPhone 14
Action camera: Insta360 One X2

It’s extremely hilly. It goes up and down the whole time. It’s the border. That’s why the border is there because it’s hilly. I’m Jessica the flocker, Dutch for bicycle vlogger. Together with singer songwriter Paula Brian, I’m cycling from Derry to London. All along the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland within our bike bags, a violin and a guitar. Along the way, we will meet many people who grew up in the borderland. This border line goes up and down. Crossing rivers, crossing towns. This border line goes up and down as we roll through town. We first take the plane from the Netherlands, bringing my It Works bike in a box. Paul will rent an ebike in Ireland. The bike arrives in a perfect shape. So, we head straight to Derry where the adventure starts. I’m in Derry in Northern Ireland. Behind me is the Peace Bridge. And for the next two weeks, I will be following the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland up the whole way to Dondog together with Paul Bryan, singer songwriter. And he’s bringing his guitar and I’m bringing my violin. And uh we’re going to meet loads of people, see beautiful landscape, I guess, and uh also have a lot of fun. Derry is an oldw world city covering both banks of the river Foy. Unfortunately, it was severely affected by the troubles, a conflict from the 60s till the late ‘9s between the Unionists, mostly Protestants, and Republicans, mostly Catholics. The Unionists want Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom, while Republicans believe in a United Ireland. In the Bucksite area, we meet singer songwriter Vincent Strongs, who lost his cousin during Bloody Sunday. On the 30th of January 1972, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march. You see the the the second row down, the third one over that was that was my uh cousin. That was he was shot. He was killed. I think he was only 15 or something like that, you know. He was shot. And what age were you? 21, 22 or something like that. And we got a list of the people that were killed. Right. I read the the sheet. His name was on it. And I didn’t even realize that his name was on it. You know, it was just so much. You know, it was hard to take in, you know. Yeah. People never get over that. You know what I mean? No. It’s it’s it’ll never go away. Will we ramble around to free dairy corn? morning. [Music] This is I love just up there a bit there. You see all these flag poles and that’s where the the graves are now. You know, see the top one there. Yeah, that’s that’s my cousin. And that’s your cousin. You knew most of them. I know. I know nearly every one of them. Save your town. Looking [Music] down along the river at Butcher’s Gate, new lovers wait. Love flows forever. A real pleasure to meet you. Yeah. Thank you. These walls we jump on the bikes. These walls up with one dog. But we have two weeks. We have two weeks to do. Bye. Bye. Sad tales to tell. [Music] After this momentous encounter, it’s time to jump on the bikes. Over the next two weeks, we will follow different cycling routes. The routes 92, 95, 91, and 9. They all crossed the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland plenty of times. We want to enjoy the landscape, but also get to know the people a bit more. What was it like to grow up in the borderland? And what is it like now? Paul is from Dublin and lives in the Netherlands. I’m from the Netherlands, but lived in Ireland for a while. Paul will be riding socks. You’ve already heard a few. [Music] Good morning. Well, I’m Traban. We stayed in this apartment here and now we’re heading into the direction of Petico on the lakes. It will be pretty hilly today. It’s going up and down, up and down. Pretty steep. And we’re going to cross the border uh a few times. 53 km. Do you want to you want to get a gun before we go? Uh it’ be handy to pick one up, wouldn’t it? Because we basically stayed above the Yeah. above the gun shop. Just going to pop in and pick up something. [Music] We’re on the on the bridge in Clatty. Clatty. Yeah. Yeah. Clad. On the bridge. On bridge number 57. The fin here. It’s the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland. Yep. When the partition came about in 1922, they decided to use the old geographical borders, but they weren’t ideal because where we cycled yesterday and today in East Dunig, it’s uh quite Presbyterian. They would have been wanted to have belonged to the union while we’re going heading over now to Clay and Straban and their towns that actually would prefer to have been part of the republic. Both areas are on the wrong side of the border in actual fact. And we’re going to meet a singer here. Yeah. In the smuggler sin. Yep. We’re going to meet Rita Gallagher. Now, she lives on the Republican side of the border and she’s going to cross this bridge to meet us in the smugglers in to sing a few songs in Northern Ireland. Hi. Hi. I’m Jessica. Hello, Jessica. Is it a particular singing style from around here? I wouldn’t think so. No, because I mean I mean I just sing the way I sing. A lot of people regarded more as highly ornamental style. Funnily enough, you knew Tom was a bit Oh, yes. Gorgeous man. I lived in Gway for a few months and then I I watched him play there. Yeah. Yeah. He was lovely. I’ll sing um a very poetic translation of anara by Patty Tony and uh he translated three verses of it. I believe there are about five in it all together. I love the translation and I love the air of the song. So I just learned that song. I try that. It seems you’ve withered and forsaken sport. The snore is higher along the port. Your male flu and your ringlet gold. Your wey meriny and the [Music] earth is cold. [Music] We continue our journey through County Terrone and County Dunagal, crisscrossing the border and facing the first serious hills. It’s a bit rainy, but we have the perfect gear. Made it. Made it to the top. It doesn’t look so steep from on the camera, but see Paul is very excited. He made the hill. Huh? You’re excited. You made a hill. Yeah. Hello. How about Yeah. I’m very impressed. You made the hill. You made the hill. Yep. Now I’m impressed. You made a hill. Oh, I had a little help. Just slowly going up and listen to songs. Now we go down to Castle Durk. Durk. Castle Derek. Yeah. Castle Durk. Yep. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] really harsh. It’s just like climbing, climbing, climbing. [Music] One more. One. One more. Made [Music] it. This is where I’m I’m staying tonight. I’m staying in a dome. It’s uh well, you can’t really see the stars on here, so hopefully it’s going to be bright. This is called Finn Lin. Jumping in the sauna. Oh, there go. Good [Music] night. I’m I’m pretty hungry after yesterday’s ride. Today we’re going to Bik. We’re following the King Fisher trail. That’s all on the lakes. That’s what we’re going to follow for the next few days. So Tommy Peoples is from St. Johnson. Yeah, St. Johnson. And that’s mainly well, it used to be mainly Protestant’s town. Yeah, the townland is fairly Protestant. Yeah. And uh Indones and and Tommy Pipples is Yeah. He became very famous for traditional music. Yeah. He played with the big really big bands in the 70s when the you had that big surge of interest in traditional music. The body band for example, he started out with them. And then he he also composed some own tunes. Y that are a bit different than usual. They’re sometimes a bit almost like classical. They sound almost like classical music. Yeah. And I love I love his tunes. So there’s this Tommy Peoples jig. Yep. I’m not sure though if he wrote [Music] it. I’ll look it up. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Lovely tube sweater time. We have reached the Formana Lakelands. The kingfisher trail winds through Buckland with lakes and forests towards the village bleik. The name bleik derives from its Gaelic name Balea literally meaning the mouth of the flatstones. Gaelic is the original Celtic language of the Irish still spoken in some [Music] areas. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] We arrived in uh Balik which is pretty touristic because of this pottery. The tour buses here are just coming in and out. It’s on the river N which is the border here between Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 1849, John Caldwell inherited a castle nearby and then after the famine, he decided to create more employment for his tenants. He was actually an amateur minologist and he did a survey of the ground in this whole area and then he found out that it has all the materials that you need to make pottery with and then he started this factory. Till today everything is done by hand. So we’re going to have a look inside and see how they do that and it still creates a lot of employment. generations of families would have worked here in this factory. Ble pottery was always great support and obviously to the local community and families and and all of that. Yeah, I pay it here. It’s all piece work. All paid by the number of pieces they make. I’m going to join Ray down here hanging ornament. It’s just a sugar bowl. This is the lid. [Music] I have to join this little piece. After about 30 seconds, take off the excess. And that’s the same process for everything. Even more complicated pieces. Like that’s that’s all I’m sticking in there. It’s very simple. But if you were making all the big statues and figurines, it’s the same way. It’s the same way. Yeah. And how long did it take to make those two pieces? These are all very quick. You made this here as a cast time of about 3 minutes. So I would pour one of these 3 minutes later you take it out. Yeah. And probably you’re talking about what did that take me there? 2 minutes. So about 30 minutes. Okay. But you would make a lot of them together. You wouldn’t just make this and then go into something else. So I’d have a big run of things. And how many pieces during a day? On average 100. Oh. What makes the work interesting for you? Your day passes very quickly because you’re fighting against the clock. You’re trying to get everything done. You’re always on the go and you’re always thinking about your next piece and what you’re going to do. I’ve worked in other areas in here and the day goes in really really slowly cuz you’re looking at the time you’re going, “Oh, is it only 12:00?” But in here, it’s different, psychologically different. Before you know it, it’s home time and you’re you’re away. So, I like that. Yeah. The variety as well is good. You know, there’s different stuff. You’re so concentrated by making everything. You’re just in your little world of your own before you know. Thank you. It’s all painted by hand. So, no two pieces will ever be identical. So, you can see now on this piece that the shamrocks are actually in the mold. You see them? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Same on the other side. Now, a lot of the pieces are freehand as well, you know, but this will make it a bit easier. So, now it is just like painting little hearts. Mhm. So, it’s just two little strokes. like that. Same again until you get the three meeting each other. So, a little heart. That’s it. Easy as that. Well, no problem. When things look easy, they never are. Now, you can have a we go. Anyway, first have to find a shimmer. How many do you do a day? Oh gosh, you could paint anything up to 3 to 400 pieces a day depending on the work that’s on it, you know. So, we do work on quite a variety of different things. You know, you’re not sitting doing the same thing all day. That’s it. Nice. Thank you. Perfect. I have to practice a little bit more. We bit more practice. You’ve done a great job. Thank you. You can put your put your initials on it for my two shamrocks. Where are you from? in Netherlands. Oh, lovely. He’s Irish. So, you’re turn round or you’re Yeah, we’re cycling actually. Oh, very good. From Derry to Dundock. Really? Yeah. Very good. I hope you get the weather now. We’ve been looking so good. So far, it’s been okay. Well, yeah. I think it’s to be okay. I mean, you don’t want it too hot either. It looks okay. So, well, there’s no rain in the forecast, so I think it’ll be all right till you get to Dundog. Somebody told us today though that perman is the wetest county. Oh, you couldn’t be in a weather. Hey, that’s why it’s that’s why it’s so green. That’s why it’s so green. More hills to come. I put on some fast music and go over it. [Music] cycles. They say this road is mostly flat, but that’s just chat. It’s more than that. stupid road. They say this road is mostly flat, but that’s just chat. You see, there’ll be lumps and bumps along the way. Wind and rain, dogs that stray. They say this road is mostly flat. That’s just chat you will see. [Music] It’s uh it’s extremely hilly. It just it goes up and down the whole time like up down up down. It’s it’s uh challenging to say the least. I sent my partner a text and saying, “Gee, it’s hard.” And he’s Irish and he said, “What do you what did you expect? It’s the border. That’s why the border is there because it’s hilly. So the border is on the hills. Yeah, I guess I guess that makes sense. You don’t make enough speed when you’re going down that you can go up. It’s just like it goes up and then it goes like kind of straight and then down and straight and then up. So I’m kind of in my granny gear and slowly going up. I’ve got my bike which is not electric. And Paul has an electric bike and he uh he he’s carrying a lot of my stuff now. So that’s good because of course I also have the violin and all my gear. So but yeah, it’s it’s very beautiful here and just taking the time. Time for a picnic in between the cows and the sheep. It’s so cute. Enjoying your picnic, Paul? Yep. Check me out. I’m in good company. You sometimes have that like you climbing a hill and you almost fall asleep. [Music] This border line goes up and down, crossing rivers, crossing towns. This borderline goes up and down as we roll through town. Such a lot to see and do, but all the time we’re just passing through. This border line goes up and down as we roll through town. Now we’re in the Republic and that’s why it says 80 km an hour instead of miles. We’re crossing the border so often that I sometimes I just don’t know where we are and then I see the cars um because they have different registration plates and I see all the yellow ones and I’m like, “Oh, we’re in Northern Ireland.” Uh so I mean it’s all pretty much the same. Just the surface changes. Sometimes it tends to be better in Northern Ireland, just spend a bit more money on the roads, I guess. But the sheep and the cows pretty much the same. The Irish people pretty much the same. Woohoo. There we go. We continue our journey towards the village of Belu. We’ll meet Margaret Gallagher who lives off the grid in her cottage, Molly. She has no running water or electricity. How are you? Hello, Margaret. This is Jessica. Hello, Jessica. Go on ahead. Go on. Very welcome. Come on. Lovely seeing you. Watch your head. Go on ahead. Make yourself at home. How long have you been living here? 81 years. And what are we in now? I was born on the 26th of January. 26th of January, 1942 at 9:05 on a Monday morning. Okay. And a year since never born in the down below there. Do you want tea or coffee? Which would you rather have or is there whatever is easiest. Well, there’s tea and coffee. So you tell me. Now there’s milk and sugar cris there. Yeah. And here. Thanks to our service. Well, it’s lovely to see you and you’re very welcome. But you’re kind of a celebrity. I see you’re in newspapers. Oh, now it’s not hard to get into the newspaper. There’s no exact dating on this house. Um, it’s reckoned to be in the late 200s. The um readable valuation of the house um is £10. Never change. Okay. And the insurance of the house, which was paid on the 24th of April, is £1,313.22 per year. Wow. Per year. Is that because it has a patch roof? It’s because it’s a greedy listed building. Is because the fires on the floor. It’s because the chimney’s low and the Spartan go out and late because the house is 200 plus and because I’m 80 plus. Okay. It’s all It’s all to do with TMBB. Too many birthdays. That’s the problem. Come on, have something else. Have a piece of the boiled cake or a bit of banana bread or stinger bread, you know. Take what you want and make more tea yourselves there. Yeah, help yourself. My father was born in 18th September 1888 and his father bought it the year before from cousins who were immigrating to America and we never heard from them more. And my father married a woman from the next parish Bo. My father was holy whale. So uh two different parishes but anyway my mother died when she was 48. Uh that was a tragedy for us. Freda was uh second year boarding at Mount Lords and I was 10. So that created quite a hiccup I can tell you losing a young woman of that age and my father’s a lot older and full of arthritis like Misha is. So um he was confined to bed for many many years. Did you ever think I got electricity? I looked after my father for all the years he was bedridden and uh I managed the best and I didn’t see any reason to change a there wouldn’t have been the money to do it absolutely none to do anything with the house and I didn’t have the will to do it and I was so brokenhearted after he died I didn’t get what happened you know I really didn’t I was 38 so uh no I never had the will to change never ever ever I love my own and also later your fault. Well, it’s fine like this. Yeah. So far, I never seen the you know, you know, no different. No, no. Except in our house, you know, if the electricity’s gone out. Yes. What do you That’s different. You see? Yes. You have sun panels nowadays. There are sun panels nowadays. So, yes. Yes. Yes, you can. Yes. I got a solar a solar charger for my phone, my £3.99 out phone out of Tesco’s and in good weather that works brilliantly. But now I got a power bank. The neighbors Dublin people bought me a power bank which was brilliant. I charge it. Uh I mean it’s char they charge it and it does 12 months to charge. Wow. Which is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Yes. Uh no there was never the will uh to do anything. No. just wasn’t full stop. And there’s my pot oven. It’s badly cracked as you can see. So, I have a tinam um enamel plate on the bottom and foil on top. So, we’ll hang this on here to warm. I wouldn’t be baking with a fire that size. It’d have to be at least three times that size of turf. No logs in it at all. Mhm. I would make my mixture here. I usually marinate the fruit the night before in um uh orange and Madagascan vanilla. I would make the mixture uh over the next morning and I transfer it into my 9 in tin. I put it in the oven. This would be all red hot at this stage. I put on the lid. Then now I would then take my coals, which are things like that there, and I go right around the oven lid with those to make sure that the heat was evenly distributed. Right. I haven’t cold because as you see I haven’t enough turf on it. There’s only a few turf on it. Okay. So we go around and then it’ll cook the same length of time as it take you to cook in an or in a electric or gas oven. Okay. So that’s the baking. What about just ordinary cooking? Like that’s just Yes, I do my dinner. Yes. My favorite dinner is um this pot oven here and put in I love potatoes. that had been down round during the famine and see I caused it. Um I lay put in a layer of potatoes and then a layer of onions and then carrots and parsnips and layer it up right at the top and put in a big love. I love butter. No cows, you know, would be safe for me for milk and butter. So I put a big blob of butter on it and hang it on the crook and leave it there until I’m ready. It’ll be ready in an hour, but I’ll take it when I’m ready. So that’s the cooking and I bring water from the spring well. I do the fill the lamps with oil, paraffin oil and um Oh yeah, it’s expensive enough. No, it is. It’s $4.99 5.99, but Lord Brook brought me some after the prince was here. They must have had a discussion about the price of oil and Edward was here. Yes. Okay. Gracious gentleman. The plates on the dresser, the brown and white are for period Billy yesterday. Yes, it is. Symbol of Ireland, the round tower of Devonish, the harp, the Irish wolfound, the symbol of the Irish army, the Shamrock and Bik. They’re over 150 years of age. The first period bake and the blue and white is Cornish wear. Yeah. And it’s And is that from the family? My grandfather bought it, I’m sure. Because the ones he bought it off James and Margaret McGee, they were immigrating and so they didn’t need it. Not at all. And what’s the good side of it? Living off the grid. Oh, it’s the solitude. It’s the it shaped my future. It made me what I am. It’s hard work. Unless you were born into it, you wouldn’t have a hope of doing it. You know, carrying water, you know, humping bags of turf down. Yeah. a neighbor generously cuts the turf for me and saves them and brings them home and I burn them, which I think is a fair deal. And um No, I I’m at home here. I love my own I love my own company. I can do crosswords. I’m never lonely. I saw you’ve got a lot of books, so you’re not reading. Yes. Yes, I do. I like reading and I love my crosswords. I’m afraid of Alzheimer’s or whatever. I’m sure I’ll get it, but I uh love doing my crosswords, trying to keep the brain active. Mhm. I like my baking. Um I go out to the skilling at least one day in the week to shop. I go to the village. I go to mass in the mornings whatever days is on. And um I’m on two committees, the parish committee and Lakeland Community Care. And I love both of them. They’re my favorite charities. And um I’m just happy in who I am. I’m very happy with myself. Yeah. and accept whatever comes cuz I have to because we all get a different cross to carry and I’ll carry it as long as I’m here. Yeah. Simple as that. Yeah. Bye-bye. Byebye. Bye-bye. Will you give us a song? I’m an honest laborer and I come from the county. Once I had a farm there with nothing much to spare, but I had to sell me donkey, me famous billy goat. And with the money I received, the glass code took the