It was almost 12 months to the day since Irish Cycling Campaign (then known as Cyclist.ie) held its last in-person Gathering, so there were many smiling faces and warm reunions at our 2024 event hosted in The Tailors’ Hall on Saturday (21st Sept). 

We were especially delighted to have members travelling from Cork, Limerick, Galway, Clare and Donegal and many other spots to attend the event. Some delegates have been active in Irish Cycling Campaign from the very beginning, while for others it was their very first meeting with campaigners from other counties. And in amongst the delegates were several of our Board Members, Executive Committee Members, and lead activists from our Local Groups and Action Groups. 

Mairéad Forsythe (Chairperson of Irish Cycling Campaign) welcoming the delegates, with Damien Ó Tuama (National Cycling Coordinator with Irish Cycling Campaign and An Taisce) in the background. Photo by Henry Simpson

For Irish Cycling Campaign, it was a fruitful, positive and energising meeting – just what we needed ahead of General Election 2024 (or will it be 2025?) for which we are working hard to put active travel and safer roads firmly on the political agenda. We spent the morning session teasing out our Election Asks, and received some excellent feedback on our draft list. 

After lunch, with Cornucopia providing some top notch food for our delegates, we explored topics such as Developments on the New Structures of ICC, How to Get Members More Involved, and How to Expand ICC’s Membership. We also had a chance to review three of the concept designs for the new logo for the organisation which generated no shortage of inputs and debate. And on that, watch this space for news over the coming period. 

Neasa Bheilbigh, Chairperson of ICC’s Executive Committee, leading the session on Membership and Volunteering. Photo by Henry Simpson

The day finished by looking ahead to our calendar of events, including the hosting of the partner organisations of the Erasmus+ project ICC is participating in (as per this recent web story – https://cyclist.ie/2024/09/irish-cycling-campaign-hosting-erasmus-visitors-in-october-2024/) – as well as reflecting on what was a busy and enjoyable day’s work. The conversions continued into the night as we retired to a local hostelry – and they were picked up again on Sunday morning at Car Free Day on Custom House Quay. 

The day was made possible by the organising work of ICC’s Executive Committee, and the Gathering was brought to life by the myriad of insightful contributions by delegates over the full day! ICC sincerely thanks our members for attending, and we also thank Photographer Henry Simpson for taking time out of his own schedule to drop in and take some snaps of our event. For those who attended, we will be back in touch soon with some summary notes from the day and will be informing the wider membership of all of the news in due course. 

We are already planning our next Gathering, which – all going well – will happen west of (or very near) the Shannon in Spring 2025!

ICC members midway through the day! Photo – Henry Simpson 

Note:
(1) The report on our 2023 Gathering, which doubled up as the 30th Birthday of Dublin Cycling Campaign, can be read here https://cyclist.ie/2023/10/cyclist-ie-gathering-and-dcc-30th-birthday-weekend/. 
(2) Thanks also to Jessica and Stephen from The Right Catering Company for help with the room set-up, and for providing teas/coffees for the delegates.