Senator Bernie Sanders and former President Mary Robinson to speak at I.NY Festival from Limerick

The fourth instalment of the I.NY Festival has been announced, with the 2020 edition hosting a diverse and exciting collection of conversations and events, presented virtually from Limerick and free to view.

A post-US election virtual discussion between US Senator Bernie Sanders, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and a number of invited young climate and political activists is set to be a key highlight.

Further events will feature Irish Ambassador to the United Nations, Geraldine Byrne Nason, Deborah Treisman of The New Yorker, Booker Prize winners Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle, Impac Prize winner Colum McCann and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shelley McNamara.

Choreographer Jean Butler, artist and U2 collaborator Catherine Owens, Lankum’s Radie Peat, photographer Rich Gilligan, Aidan Connolly of the Irish Arts Center NYC, Mothers Of Invention’s Thimali Kodikara, Kathryn Lloyd of Lower East Side Tenement Museum, journalists and broadcasters including Dave Hannigan, Donal Dineen, John Kelly and Peter Curtin will also take part.

An anchor event within Fáilte Ireland’s Global Irish Festival Series, the annual I.NY Project explores and celebrates the relationship between Ireland and New York, one story at a time.

“Our small team are genuinely delighted to announce details of the 2020 I.NY Festival," I.NY Festival Founder and Director David O’Donovan said. "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."

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.

The full 2020 Festival programme is available now on their website, with all events will be streamed for free.