Opening Ceremony

Today our international team assembled outside the Custom House in Dublin for the launching of the 2009 Irish World Harmony Run, a 14 day journey around the entire island of Ireland.

The Run was launched by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who started off by warmly greeting each member of the international team.

Our World Harmony Run Executive Director, Salil Wilson,  introduced the Run. We were also delighted to be joined by Adhiratha Keefe, who for many years coordinated activities for Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations. Mr. Keefe presented Mr Ahern with the Torch-Bearer award for his tireless work on behalf of the Northern Irish peace process.

Mr Ahern then gave a short speech expressing his appreciation for the mammoth task we are undertaking - he jokingly warned us that today would either be a national day of celebration or of mourning (depending on the result of our rugby match against Wales) but that hopefully it would be a celebration and we could all join in!

We also presented him with a painting from the 'World Harmony' series painted by World Harmony Run founder Sri Chinmoy.

Mr Ahern shares a few words with the event organiser, Paula Flood, before leaving for Cardiff to catch the big game.

We also met boxing world championship contender Bernard Dunne on his way to his title fight tonight on in the O2 Arena, just a few hundred metres away from us, and he kindly took a  few minutes out to hold the Torch. Bernard will be challenging for the WBA Super Bantamweight title tonight against the world champion, Ricardo "El Maestrito" Cordoba.  Best of luck Bernard!!!

Dublin - Drogheda

Some friends also came to see us off, including the Reilly family from Rathfarnham - Mick, Irene, Hannah and Kevin.

Gerald, Adera, Patrycja and Martyna also came along to give us their best wishes.

Our Garda escort was waiting for us to escort us through the streets of Dublin. Baridhi, of course, wanted to try the motorcycles out for himself...

Then it was time to run through the streets of  Dublin. Our route took us down O'Connel Street and northwards out of the city...

We passed a group of 30 Welsh rugby fans who had come over to experience the big game today 'from the other side'. They definitely added a splash of colour to our running team, running with us for a couple of hundred metres.

En route to Drogheda, some of the team paid a visit to Newgrange, a remarkable megalithic tomb that dates to 3200BC.

As we arrived in Drogheda, the Mayor Frank Maher welcomed us to town.

Members of the Boyne Junior Athletic club were on hand to accompany us out of town.

Drogheda town officials and the Boyne Athletic club shared delicious refreshments before we headed back out on the road. 

Amy and Niamh were eager to take the torch as far as they could. Niamh wanted to run with us to Belfast. The rest of the World Harmony Run just about managed to catch up with both of them!

We continued running until the sun set, just short of Dundalk, which is where we'll start running again tomorrow...

Team Members:
Colm Magee, Ambarish Keenan, Sundar Dalton (Ireland), Salil Wilson (Australia), Purnendu Knezevic (Serbia), Standa Zubaty, Katka Purusova (Czech Republic), Matthias Eckerle (Germany), Adhiratha Keefe (USA), Boijayanti Gomez-Badillo (Puerto Rico), Baridhi Yonchev (Bulgaria), Svetlana Gorschkova (Russia), Vanessa Boschetti (Brazil), Rupashri Brown, Kallola Brown (New Zealand)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.