I Cycled Along the Irish Border with a Singer-Songwriter & My Violin 🎻 | Ep. 3

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, with in 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.

Our cycling route:
https://www.komoot.com/collection/2021875/-borderland-by-bike

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

I’m Jessica,
the Fietsvlogger. Dutch for bicycle vlogger. Together with singer-songwriter
Paul O’Brien I’m cycling from Derry to Dundalk, all along the
border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. In our eyes there is no border. It’s just an imaginary line. With in our bike bags, a violin and a guitar. This time I have my own
fiddle with me, you see? This borderline goes up and down, crossing rivers, crossing towns. This border line goes up and down As we rolled through town As you can see the border here is in a really strange shape. This is the border Just north from Clones we see the border
meandering in all kinds of directions. It’s almost in the form of a star.
Right on the border there is a house. When we pass by, we see the owner in his garden. You are in Northern Ireland there. If you are on this other wee road
you are in the southern area. This is a triangle where Peter lives. It is all north. It’s a little island. Anywhere there was a border there were spikes. Were you sometimes
stuck here then? I had two cars, a northern one and
a southern one, so we could go either way. Really? Yeah? Two licenses too. Really? Well, in our eyes there is no border. It’s just an imaginary line. I think. You don’t think so? Yes, true, you can see
it on the map, but that’s it. Imaginary line. Yeah. I suppose it’s a nice way to spend a week cycling. You are keeping
well exercised. Hey. We made a friend. He just started following us,
but I think his owners will miss him. This here is a big huge sport field with a stadium. It is created as a peace link to bring communities together from both sides of the border. And now we will stay in the
Republic for a while, so we’re heading to Monaghan and it will be all Republic. The border is such a weird shape. It’s mad. Here is a tale of going home Along the boundary line set out in a treaty once, a weary man had signed That line was drawn through fair townlands and I had come to know The squadies and the checkpoints gone
No traces now to show For I had often stood to wait There no sign to be found No barricade, no wire, no
fence or line upon the ground. In Monaghan, there is a greenway
along the canal around the city It’s beautiful and a lot of people
are using it to walk, to run. A few cyclists. I texted Fergal, my partner: I’m in Monaghan. He’s like: oh Monaghan. It’s not really known for being a great city. But now, because of this greenway
and all the parks they made it’s really nice. I had a great time. From the morning sun on Derry’s walls, past homes of Donegal. Back in the north. Yes? To proud Fermanagh’s lovely lakes and splendid waterfalls To that ancient fort and sacred hill where once four trumpets played Past the church in Armagh town where Brian Boru is laid Stop for ice cream and a chat beseside a forest way along the old canal from Scava to the sea. This is a roundhouse dwelling. It’s a recreation of a roundhouse that was found in a place called Deer Park in County Antrim. And the one in Deer Park was carbon-dated about 65 AD We’ll have to announce ourselves because there’s actually Celtic people inside that you’re going to meet. Okay. We’re going to jump in the time machine. More guests for you guys. More guests.
Wonderful. We have Jessica. Hello. You see, as it stands in our time, there are five kingdoms on the island. Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Meath, and Connacht. None of us like each other But it is said that the gods granted each of the kingdoms a gift. We and Ulster were given battle. We’re a land of warriors. We’ like a fight. Fergus, how did you come by your wife? Well, sir, we met when we were young, when we were children. Both of us attended the school of the Craobh Rua, the School of the Red Branch. It is a formal warrior training school that is unique to Ulster. We don’t really use arranged marriages. An unhappy marriage is an unhappy family. An unhappy family is an unproductive family. So, ladies, you might like this. If the belt your husband wore in his wedding day no longer fits around his waist, that is grounds to end the marriage. I’m in trouble then. I mean, I think it’s fair enough. You know, you haven’t worked hard enough,
you’ve ate too much than you should have. So, you know, do all you’re eating before you get married. So my father always told me. Yes, indeed. All right, well, we will show a warrior cry as well, so just give us a big big ROAR. ROAR Paul actually reached out to this fort beforehand, and when they heard what we were doing, they said, you know, we’re going to just do a music session. So there’s musicians coming now, some kids as well, and we’re going to play some music. We’re in Armagh. Last night we stayed here. I thought we have a short look in the city. Visit the cathedral and walk through these shopping streets…
and you can see that they really renovated all the old buildings. I really didn’t expect Armagh to be nice, but it is. It actually is. The buildings look pretty amazing. British buildings, because you see that a lot in Ireland, a lot of the cities have been built by the British. This is the memorial in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh City to Brian Boroimhe, he’s buried somewhere here in the grounds. He was slain at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 after he’d fought off a Viking army . It was the beginning of the end of the Vikings. It was also the beginning of the end of a united clan system in Ireland. And you’re kind of connected? Oh yes. This is the Brien that all the O’Briens in the world claim to descend from. So all the O’Briens are of royal blood. We’ve got probably one of the biggest royal families in the world. Poor Brian. He requested to be buried somewhere here in the grounds after his death. He had laid siege to Dublin for a while with his army The Viking leaders at the time had assembled an army from Norway and from the Scottish Islands to lift the siege of the city. And they fought at Clontarf Brian’s army defeated the Vikings there. There were nearly 10,000 people killed It must have been a colossal battle for those days Towards the end of the battle, Brian went to his tent to pray to thank God for the wonderful victory that day And someone was able to sneak in and chop his head off. He killed him. Walking in the gardens of the cathedral, It’s really pretty, beautiful. Well, look at the weather we have. We have very sunny weather, but also the view, you can really see the city from here. Ad all these old, very old bricks. This is currently the police station for the
police services of Northern Ireland, but it was the army barracks here for many, many years. As you can see, it’s quite a well fortified place in the city. It was a major center for the army in Northern Ireland in the bad old days. It’s such a peaceful place now but a lot of things happened here. But it’s good: you can really see it’s recovering you know. It’s a beautiful city now. Thank God that those troubles are gone. Hopefully it stays like that. That’s my bike. That’s what I use to go over the roads. I go with the bike over the hills. We’re cycling from Derry to Dundalk. Crazy, isn’t it? It’s quite far. It’s like a few hundred kilometers. More grass? So, hi, ladies. We meet a lot of cows on the road and they always come to say hi. They want to know where we are going. So I just explained them. Anyway, lets explain to you where we are going. So we started in Armagh and we’re heading to Newry. It’s around 50 kilometers. The first half will be more hills and then we will arrive in Scarva, which will be the heaven because from Scarva it will be flat to Newry. We will go on a new greenway along the canal. And actually after that, tomorrow also will be pretty flat, so the last hills. Selfie! Okay, all smile at the camera, cheese. We are in Clare, which is a village. And apparently…. Well. It’s busy. Apparently they’re loyalists over
here so they have all the flags hanging up. That borderline It went up and down We crossed rivers passed through towns That border line Went up and down As we rolled through towns There’s a.. It just went up to his crazy steep hill. It’s very steep. And … when I’m going up a hill like that, I’m thinking, the There is a reason why people
love to cycle in The Netherlands. There is a reason for it. But look, the landscape. And I actually can hear someone breathing next to me. I think there’s a cow here. Yeah, it’s a cow. We’ve done almost all the hills. I see one little one, and then we’ll get to Scarva and that will be the end of the hills. That’s great. We’ve been following all kinds of different bike routes. It’s kind of strange, but Sustrans, the organization that made these routes, they kind of decided to stop promoting them, because they think they’re not suitable for kids. Well, they’re probably not, but they’re still suitable for all kinds of cyclists. I mean, they’re beautiful routes. But we’ve seen a lot of signposts. You can see one here behind me because they decided to stop these routes, they put stickers on all the numbers. So the signs are still there, and you can follow them all, you can follow all these routes, but the numbers are gone.. So if you want to cycle these routes yourself,
that’s something that’s good to know. The signs are sometimes missing, but
they are pretty good, actually. Most places there are there, but I’ve been using navigation. I put the routes in Komoot. But, yeah. Anyway, on to Scarva. High five. Well done. Hey cool, look at my colors You’re in Dutch colours. It suits well with the flag. See? Yep. Anyway, we did it. We did the hills. You did the big hill. We did the hills. We’re in Scarva. Now it’s going to be flat like in The Netherlands. Okay. All the way. Mostly flat. They say this road is mostly flat But that’s just chat It’s more than that They say this road is mostly flat That’s just chat you see There’ll be lumps and bumps along the way Wind and rain Dogs that strain They say this road is mostly flat That’s just chat you’ll see We’ve been following the Newry Canal Towpath from Scarva to Newry and the canal here is the oldest canal of Ireland and the UK and it was being used at the start to bring the coal from one place to
another and then later it was also used for wood and for other materials It’s a very beautiful ride. Most of it is a greenway, so you’re on a cycling lane, and then there’s a few miles on the road The thing is that the canals in Ireland mostly don’t really go straight for a long time so you’re like following the meandering canal and it’s very picturesque You want to get rid of your pounds, yeah? I want to get rid of the pounds, yeah. I’m going to pay with the pounds. Get rid of the pounds. Bye, Queen. Bye, Queenie. Oh, she’s gone. Bye. Supervalue, with these fab savings. I spent your pounds. And a bit more Well, one last hill to get to the cottage, but there’s a Jacuzzi here. It’s kind of in the backyard of the owners, I think, but. This is so good. Paul picked this place just outside of Newry, and we had to go up this hill again and I was like, oh. I said, “Why?” And he said, ” there’s a Jacuzzi.” Oh, this is so, so good. Well, you’re the best. It is the best Jacuzzi ever. It was worth it. Good morning today is the last cycling day from Newry to Dundalk and we’re going to pass the beautiful lake. There is actually a Greenway and quite a new Greenway from Omeath to Carlingford that we’re going to cycle on And it will be rather flat. I know the area pretty well because I’ve lived in Dundalk and I’ve lived in Ravensdale up in the mountains, and Carlingford always has been kind of a special place for me. Yeah, but first, we’re kind of a little bit outside of Newry, so we go back into Newry Visit the graveyard, there’s a memorial there for The Troubles, and then have a very short look in Newry And then we are on our way to Carlingford where we probably will end up playing a few tunes. Because Newry is so close to the border, you know, there’s been a lot of struggle going on. So it’s starting with 1920. Yeah. And why is that? Why 1920? Well, this is a memorial to all the Republican volunteers who died fighting for the freedom of Ireland, for the whole Republic of Ireland. And 1920 was the war of Independence against Britain, 1920-1921. Every now and again there would be
a Republic action against what the Republicans would consider
the occupation of Ulster, so 1925. In 1957 the IRA had a border campaign They had quite a few bombs placed. The rest of the names are really from the most current episode of Troubles that started in 1969. 1972 being one of the worst years for casualties And it goes right down to 1991 So it’s quite something. And what does it say, let’s see, it has an Irish… Oglaigh is literally translated
as the youth, but it in this case It would mean the youth and the volunteers who fought and died for the freedom of Ireland. I’m gonna have a read of this myself. I just find it interesting. So there is one that says: forget making plans for the world think about how it’s going to effect humans. Are you here a lot, standing on the market? This is my regular stall, but sometimes I go. I only try and bring my nice things here. The things that are not much good I tend to a car boot sale. Okay. But this is my favourite market in the whole of Northern Ireland. And you go to different different ones?
Yes, but this one’s the best. Newry is the place to be. Yeah. It’s big shopping city isn’t it? They like all my old-fashioned stuff, which is good. This is one of my best customers. Oh, I should be selling my own things. instead of buying them, but I’m a hoarder. Do you live near here? At Belfast. So you come the whole way here. So Newry is better than Belfast? Definitely. The music is nice. You know, it’s a lot of Irish. And what appeals here doesn’t appeal there. We also noticed there are a lot of signs here
are in Gaelic and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s just like being far away from Belfast is nice. Yeah, yeah. This is where I used to do my shopping In around 2008, I think it was when I lived in Dundalk. And the recession hit Ireland really badly. And because the pound was very low, we all went shopping in the north. Dundalk is in the South, you see, in the Republic. You have euros there, in Newry pounds.
So it was 10, 20% cheaper. That wasn’t so good for Dundalk. Because all the shops went bankrupt. Even in the ’70s, a lot of people would go from Dublin to do their shopping here in Newry
or Jonesborough, which is quite close by. As well from Dublin, yeah? To buy the necessities of life, like Toilet roll was really cheap. and beer, cans of beer. Beer. That was the main thing. Bus loads of people used to come. There were tours buses organized from Dublin to come here. It’s the last border crossing. We’re going to the Republic now We just crossed the border for the last time. So we’re standing now in the Republic, looking out across the water of Carlingford Lough to Northern Ireland at Narrow Water Castle. In 1979, it was the scene of an IRA ambush The IRA planted some bombs Quite close to the castle Probably someone stood here or here about with a remote control and they waited until an army patrol was passing and they set off the first bomb killing quite a few soldiers but that wasn’t the end of it. The British army sent support for those soldiers to get them out of there and when that support arrived, the IRA set off another bomb 18 British soldiers died that day, as As well as two civilians, one catholic, one protestant. For the IRA it was a very successful ambush. And naturally enough they were able to escape quite easily because they were in the Republic and the army had no jurisdiction to come and follow them this side of the border. It’s a busy road now. It’s a busy road now, but it was a busy road then because it also links up with the ferry to Scotland. Yeah. At least it’s peaceful now. It is. Yeah. And even if this is one of the spots where
you just, you can shout across To people you know in Northern Ireland. This was a boarding school run by the Rosmenian fathers called Saint Michaels. 51 years ago during the summer
of 1972 I was here with a group from my school. We were here during the summer to learn Gaelic, a special three week intensive course in Gaelic to bring up the level of our Gaelic speaking. And there were two other schools here and both of the schools were from the Falls Road in Belfast. In the summer of 1972, Operation Motorman took place and at 4 o’clock in the
morning, the British army broke into all the no go areas in Belfast and in Derry. There were no mobile phones, there was
no internet, but the Belfast kids had the radio on every night, because
they knew something was going to happen. So about 4 o’clock in the morning, this whole place, all the lights were on, everybody was up and everybody was listening to the BBC radio about
the reports coming back from Belfast. And the kids were queuing up to
use the telephone to try and ring people or ring neighbours in because not everybody in
Belfast had a telephone either. But to try and find out who had been picked up by the army. The army picked up most males of the areas that these kids were living in. The brothers, the fathers, everybody was picked up and intent without trial. Operation Motorman. What age were you? I was 13. So that was up until the end, The Troubles had been something
that we had seen on TV. but that brought it home. Every morning, we were brought down to the waters site and they’d raised the Republican flag and sing the national anthem as loud as you could to make sure they could hear it on the other side of the water. Yeah. And now we’re heading to Carlingford. Where you have better memories. The first time I was in Carlingford as a kid, and I’ve seen a real
castle and I was out to I can remember running around that real castle, I
thought it was King Arthur or something. Yeah, I loved it. Sometimes when I fall, my love, there’s nothing that comes between When he dawns his jacket blue He’s the finest lad you’ve seen. But something stirs him deep inside And pulls his heart from me. My love he is a sailor And sailors love the sea My love is a sailor And sailors love the sea And we walk by Carlingford along that lovely hill, and he holds me close beside us To shelter me from the chill. But billowed sails and capstans They pull his heart from me. My love is sailor and sailors love the sea. My love is a sailor and sailors love the sea This summer I have my own fiddle with me, you see. Yeah, yeah, so you’re able to join in. So we just arrived in the place of an uncle and an aunt, of my partner Fergal. They invited us over. They just live very close to Dundalk. So this is my room for tonight. Shower, food And there are spoons there.
So fire away. Whatever salads you wish to have, and the potatoes are warm, so. So we passed Ravensdale, and the pub The Lumpers I thought let’s go up this hill, Ballymakellett,
because this is actually where I lived. This house here. You can see Dundalk there in the distance and the sea, the lake. Very, very cool For my heart lies in the Cooley hills That I can’t deny What I’ve found there so sweet and rare Money just can’t buy Absolutely amazing view Unbelievable. And I lived here, and I moved away. Oh, well. We were sitting cold night Staring at the fire Talking to ourselves Looking at the sunset I am a busker from Dundalk myself. I started busking during lockdown, just bored. I started to play the guitar. That’s my story. And now you do it every week or? Every day nearly once a day, yeah. Because I don’t remember… I lived here 10 years ago. No one was busking here then. No see now Dundalk is a big busking town, because in Dublin you have to buy permits, you have to buy licenses. You don’t have to do any of that here yet. I am sweating, Jesus Christ. It’s hot. I was warm on the bicycle.
For a change. I can imagine. Which was good, I don’t like rain. How long did it take? 12 days. So it was a bit more than 400 kilometers. There are a lot of hills, I have to say, in the borderland. I’m in the Spirit store, it’s in the harbor of Dundalk, and it’s a big music venue. I used to come here in the old days, to the music sessions. They have that every Sunday, a music session, and actually do gigs here as well. Well, I’m going to play at the session. So you play here every week? Yeah.. Are you still in Ravensdale or did you move? Tomorrow I’m flying back. Oh, you back in Holland, is it? Oh, yeah. Something nice and… Something slow? Yeah, yeah, yeah.. A friend of mine died. Some like a slow air maybe? It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful.
I never heard of it. Is there a name for it? Love of our Islands. Yeah, it’s beautiful.