16.07.2025

News had travelled about the re-animated Renault 4 at Muine Bheag Community Hall and when we arrived early ahead of our talk, there was a fella waiting with his 2001 Subaru Impreza. Others had gathered to have a look at the two cars so we started revving and showing off the two models comparatively, to amuse the crowd.

This day last year we, as tour de force, gave a public talk about the tour and hosted writer and contemporary art theorist, Barry Kehoe to share his research; a psychogeographic meandering through the history of sport, medicine, media and graverobbing phenomena during the 1800s in Leinster. The main focus of Barry’s research was Dan Donnelly, born March 1788, a professional boxing pioneer and the first Irish-born heavyweight champion.  Barry’s research centres on the expeditions that Dan Donnelly’s mummified arm made independently, after graverobbers removed the body from its resting place at Bully’s Acre, Kilmainham.

Part of the discussion, was about how the community and family, the custodians of the arm would like to see it re-interned at Bully’s Acre. Certainly a strange set of analogies to hear about at a community hall during an art/coffee morning, but the audience stayed with us as we discussed the line of demarcation between subject and object. Mummification of the arm, anthropomorphism of the car, incarnation, personification, degradation and re-animation. How do we collectively ascribe value to an artifact in the ground, how long must it be buried before we consider it an artifact, when is something a relic, what are the embedded belief systems we share; the ethics around burial customs, mounds and grounds that are omnipresent on this island. What about fragmentation, and deconstruction; when is an object considered a component of something else, and not its own thing. Does it have to do with the heart…? The engine…?....The soul…? We had a good crowd at the talk and honestly, fair play to them for staying with us while we went so abstract and deep that early in the day. There was plenty of follow up conversations afterwards too, with the talk having struck a chord.  

After existential discussions drifted, when the tea and biscuits were finished, we distributed our leaflet; a map of pit stops, cultural events all around Ireland, before hitting the road towards Wexford for a long drive via the Borris Viaduct, a 16-arch limestone railway bridge.

Against the backdrop of the Blackstairs Mountains, from the foot of an arch, the view through the small, comically shaped R4 windscreen lent the viaduct a majestic and cinematic atmosphere; with the vast expanse of the landscape, we felt minuscule inside the tiny car, almost like it was a toy car. Apparently there was a great sense of pride for the viaduct when it was built in the 19th century, it was considered a monumental triumph of railway engineering in Ireland at the time. Originally constructed as part of the Muine Bheag to Wexford railway line, passenger trains crossed the bridge up until 1931 and commercial goods trains continued using it until 1947. It was decommissioned completely in 1963. 

From the viaduct we continued along the L3006 – passing through Tomduff, in Irish Tuaim Dhubh, which translates to ‘the black mound’ or ‘black burial place’ as we climbed the saddle between Mount Leinster and Slievebawn, Sliabh Bán – ‘White Mountain’, towards The Nine Stones. Stories, theories, legends abound about the stones – their meaning and their contemporaneous significance. Conflicting information compelled us to visit the stones, to see if anything could be gleaned or deduced from direct interaction. We were climbing up a country lane ascending in the little car through the woods, happily listening to a tape, Chants Corréziens : French folk songs from Corrèze, and then it happened….

To the group of touring motor cyclists who met us coming in the opposite direction; why on earth did you not warn us?! How come not a single person in the gang thought to wave us down?!!.. and give us a heads up? Did not one of you have the realisation that we were headed for the danger you’d all just escaped?! The mind boggles.

Okay so on our way up, we turn a corner and suddenly find ourselves facing several huge bulls, heifers and their calves. Any farmer will tell you that heifers are just as aggressive as bulls when they are calving. Couldn’t tell you how many there were – we just seemed to be suddenly surrounded, and actually; because the verge rose up either side of the road – there was barely space for anything to pass, let alone the biggest bull you’ve ever seen. It's too intense to describe here. You’ll just have to watch the Twitch footage and I hope it does justice to the scale of that animal.

One little fleeting thought to mount the car or use it to scratch its rump, and the car would crumple like a tin can; we really thought we were done for….

I was like DRIVE Liliane,
But Liliane was like, NO! we’ll startle them and then what?! ONE’S LOOKING AT US!
Don’t look at them, don’t make eye contact! I said,
Why? Asked Liliane,
I heard it makes them feel threatened, I answered…OH THE BULL IS COMING OVER!
Liliane: How do you know it’s coming over if you’re not looking?
Me: Peripherally, I can see it peripherally
Liliane: Don’t look at themmmm…… DON’T LOOK AT THEMMMMM
Me: OH THEY’RE COMING!

Full Withnail and I, gone on holiday by accident. We were frozen with fear and then -  you couldn’t make it up – as if the car was also in shock, it completely seized up and wouldn’t start either…