Soaring With The Wild Geese: A Q&A With Gerry Regan

For fifteen years a leading destination for those passionate about Irish history and heritage, TheWildGeese.com found itself at a crossroads. To fulfill its mission - "to explore, promote, preserve and celebrate the heritage of the Irish worldwide" - the site needed a complete overhaul with ways to incorporate the voices of the Irish Diaspora.

Wild Geese co-founder Gerry Regan answers questions about the site's past, present and future, and how he is underwriting the website update through an innovative online crowdfunding campaign.

How did The Wild Geese come about?

The Wild Geese started 15 years ago this month when Joe Gannon, Micah Chandler and I, three huge history buffs searched for "Irish History" online and found very little.
This largely unexplored Irish focus seemed a good fit, so we launched The Wild Geese.
This big anniversary seems like auspicious time to revamp the site.
We found that Ireland's centuries-long struggle to gain sovereignty from one of the world's foremost powers was among the most dramatic we'd encountered.
And with millions of emigrants worldwide, we came to see the outsized impact the Irish had on the world.
With these insights, we set about "Chronicling the Epic History of the Irish Worldwide."
Fifteen years, 700-plus articles, drawing 1,100 visits and more than 2,000 page views daily - not bad considering we spent a pittance on marketing.

So why change tracks now, 15 years in, with a new business strategy?

We came to realize our limitations in fully exploring Irish history.
Think about it - hundreds, perhaps thousands, of traditional and folk tunes recorded each year by consummate, passionate artists.
The same with books about the Irish experience and Irish studies programs springing up in universities.
A huge literary and artistic milieu, spoken word, theatre, filmmaking, dance, visual arts, sculpture, all interpreting and exploring the Irish experience through centuries, millennia in many cases.
We thought: Why not create a community of people and organizations devoted to exploring and celebrating the heritage of the Irish worldwide - a place where each of us can bring our own Irish stories and connect with those from around the world with particular expertise to share.
It will be a dynamic place where we are all, together, pushing the boundaries of what we've come to know about the Irish experience.
We also want The Wild Geese to play a vital role in preserving Irish heritage "wherever green is worn."

So what is The Wild Geese crowdfunding campaign?

This 30-day crowdfunding campaign is how we will raise the funds we need to better serve our constituency and our Irish worldwide focus.
To carry out our mission, we need a newly designed site that allows visitors ready access to precisely the information they want or need, and that helps us connect our Heritage Partners with our readers and members.
We need a site that allows readers to share articles and information quickly, via social media, pages that carry our partners' marketing messages and professionally written content that speaks powerfully of the Irish and their exploits around the world.
Most of all, we need a full-featured online community alongside the newly designed web site - a place where our members, the Irish Diaspora around the globe, can share their stories, connect with their heritage, and explore their history.
And a place where marketers who share our passion and our mission can connect with us naturally.
These require money, both from our many fans and from Heritage Partners who believe in what we are trying to accomplish.
Heritage Partners have stepped up to offer the best of their products and services as rewards for donations at every level, starting at just $10, to those who support us in this campaign with donations at any and all levels.

Why should devotees of Irish culture worldwide get involved now?

For many years we've presented stories of the Irish, worldwide, with looks at the culture fostered by the Diaspora.
We've had a largely one-way conversation, though. To explore and celebrate our heritage worldwide, we need more - we need you.

How will the energy of the campaign continue into The New Wild Geese?

With the help of donations, in early January, we will launch our newly designed public site, along with The New Wild Geese community.
We are already planning new content, such as editorial cartoons, op-ed pages, expanded travel coverage, and launch of nine channels and dozens of sub-channels, along with The Wild Geese Directory of Irish Heritage and Hospitality Network.

So many individuals, even many Irish Americans, don't look back. What draws you and your colleagues to focus on Irish heritage?

For us, The Wild Geese continues to be about two things: exploring and presenting the dramatic stories of our ancestors, and finally, the drive to find, and reconnect, to our roots.
These will continue to inspire and inform us as we move forward.
One of the most satisfying aspects of my work producing The Wild Geese all these years has been the thanks we've received from individuals who credit us with helping them reconnect to their roots, to their kith and kin, to Mother Ireland herself.
For everyone out there finding themselves overcome with sadness when contemplating the emigrant's trail of tears, or thrilled by narratives of the Irish struggle for nationhood, this campaign is, above all, for you. We need your support and ask for it now.
Go raibh maith agat!

To make a donation, and to learn more about The Wild Geese and its innovative online crowdfunding effort, visit indiegogo.com/newwildgeese. The campaign concludes on December 11th.