THE GATHERING: HOMEWARD BOUND
The Gathering: Homeward Bound sees six well-known Irish people who are based abroad return to their home place, or a place they have close ties to, in order to help these communities prepare for The Gathering Ireland 2013, a year-long celebration which will see the people of Ireland reaching out to many millions of friends, family, loved ones and connections overseas, inviting them to Ireland next year to celebrate with everyone.
The personalities featured in the line-up are: former rugby international Trevor Brennan goes back to Leixlip; musician Bressie returns to Mullingar; Irish dancer and choreographer Jean Butler re-connects with Westport; comedian Brendan Grace returns to the Liberties; Kerry GAA and Aussie Rules football star Tadhg Kennelly goes back to his native Listowel and renowned Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan revisits Connemara.
Each of those featured will undertake a very personal journey where they will revisit places of particular significance to them, evoking an emotional and sometimes humorous response. They will also uncover the story of emigration from their home place, by meeting with local historians, visiting libraries and viewing church records. A clear picture of both the historic and more recent emigrant history will be created so that the Diaspora of each particular town will become a more tangible and real concept to the people in each of these places.
Along the way they will help reunite family and friends who have not seen each other for decades, putting flesh on the bones of what ‘home’ really means for the Irish scattered across the globe. Finally, each of the six will create a video invite to the world, asking them to return to the person’s chosen town in 2013.
The series will be broadcast on RTÉ One television and is also available to audiences worldwide on the RTÉ Player www.rte.ie/player
Episode 2 of 6 – Bressie
In this programme pop vocalist and ex-Blizzards front man Niall ‘Bressie’ Breslin returns to his native Mullingar. Bressie now lives in London where he works as a music producer as well as having a successful solo pop career. Bressie has come back to his homeplace of Mullingar to find out about what his town has planned for The Gathering Ireland 2013 and to reconnect with his old team mates, family and friends.
The people of Mullingar are coming up with ideas for their own events and reunions as part of the year-long celebration. Bressie is told about the left-handed festival in Belvedere and plans for the biggest clan gathering in Ireland at the Festival of the Fires.
As a proud Westmeath man he wants to see what he can do to help his own community invite its far-flung Diaspora back to visit next year. Bressie goes to see his old football team, Mullingar Town FC, as he has heard they have something special planned. 39-years-ago the senior team won The Glen Abbey cup which is the highlight of the team’s history.
Rugby was such a big part of Bressie’s youth in Mullingar and he gets time to catch up with his old rugby team in Mullingar Rugby Club. While in the clubhouse he and his teammates challenge the under 19s team to a match for 2013 for their very own gathering.
Bressie is curious to find out where Mullingar’s Diaspora went to. A local historian, Ruth Illingwoth, takes him back through the different eras of emigration from the town. Ruth takes Bressie to see the train station which was nicknamed Lizzie’s Express in the 50s (after Queen Elizabeth) when wave upon wave of Westmeath natives boarded the trains bound for the United Kingdom.
Bressie’s last task is to play his part for The Gathering. While home in Mullingar he made a short film about the people and the town he loves and what home means to him. This video is his invite to the people of Mullingar all around the world. Bressie launches his video to a gathering of Irish people living London and sends out his message about how good it is to come back.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0PkZ0nuCJw&list=PL08D2CEC0BFFD05E8&index=2&feature=plpp_video[/youtube]