US Senator Bernie Sanders is among the many guests appearing at the 2020 I.NY festival, of which University of Limerick is a founding partner.
The Limerick-based I.NY Festival is broadcasting online from today, December 2 until December 6, with co-streaming events in both Ireland and New York.
The five-day digital programme for the festival, which is part of the Global Irish Festival series, is supported by Fáilte Ireland, Limerick City and County Council, University of Limerick, Shannon Group, BDO, The Consulate General of Ireland New York and New York’s Irish Arts Center.
The 2020 I.NY Festival will host a diverse, exciting and challenging collection of conversations and events, presented virtually from Limerick and free to view, including a pivotal, post-US election discussion between Senator Bernie Sanders, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and a number of invited young climate and political activists.
Further events will feature Irish Ambassador to the U.N. Geraldine Byrne Nason, Deborah Treisman of The New Yorker, Booker Prize winners Anne Enright & Roddy Doyle, Impac Prize winner Colum McCann and Pritzker Prize winning architect Shelley McNamara, and many others.
An anchor event within Fáilte Ireland’s Global Irish Festival Series, the I.NY Project explores and celebrates the relationship between Ireland and New York, one story at a time. The annual I.NY Festival is one of the central elements of the I.NY Project, bringing to life the unique relationship between Ireland and New York, in all its diversity and richness, history and modernity, positivity and difficulty.
Focusing on the personal stories of the Irish in and of New York, I.NY welcomes and tells those stories through conversation and debate, interviews and performances, cultural and political discourse, music, literature, film, fashion, food, sport and arts events.
Like so many cultural and artistic projects, I.NY has fought hard throughout 2020 to respond to the demands and forced changes of the coronavirus pandemic. The necessary move online has created opportunities for the festival to connect with new artists and audiences.
UL is a founding partner on the festival and UL President Professor Kerstin Mey said: “The University of Limerick is pleased to partner in the 2020 I.NY Festival. Building on our strong Alumni and Foundation relations to New York, we are delighted to contribute with our expertise to what promises to be vibrant cultural exchanges and celebrations.”
I.NY Festival Founder and Director David O’Donovan said: “Our small team are genuinely delighted to announce details of the 2020 I.NY Festival. It’s been an extraordinary year, and we’re deeply grateful to our friends and colleagues here at home and in New York who have guided and supported us in imagining, undoing, reimagining and eventually staging a 2020 festival in the best way we can, given the world we currently, temporarily, live in.
“Our intention, as always, is that the I.NY Festival will connect people, cause ideas, start conversations, begin friendships, and entertain audience and artist alike. That feels more important this year than ever before. Moving online has meant that we can invite artists and speakers to join us who couldn’t have physically travelled, and that has meant that there are guests in the programme this year that we’ve been hoping to invite to the Festival for some time. We’re greatly looking forward to hearing their stories.
“We’re grateful too for the support, enthusiasm and generosity of thought of our many partners, and really looking forward to welcoming friends, family, guests and audience, from Ireland and New York, back to the festival, even if this year that’s via screen,” he added.
Also joining the 2020 Festival will be Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, choreographer Jean Butler, artist and U2 collaborator Catherine Owens, Lankum’s Radie Peat, photographer Rich Gilligan, Aidan Connolly of the Irish Arts Center NYC, photographer and DJ Brian Cross/B+, Mothers Of Invention’s Thimali Kodikara, Kathryn Lloyd of Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and journalists and broadcasters including Dave Hannigan, Donal Dineen, John Kelly and Peter Curtin, along with New York DJs Qool Marv, Monk One and Miranda Maxwell.
The full 2020 Festival programme is available now at www.thisisiny.com. All events will be streamed at www.thisisiny.com and are free for all to enjoy.