On Saturday, August 1, President of the Eire Society of Boston, Tom Mackey, will set off on a 105-mile journey running from Dublin to Strokestown for the second Famine Way Ultra.

The Famine Way follows the footsteps of the Strokestown tenants, men, women, and children who were marched from Roscommon to Dublin in 1847 after they failed to pay their rent. The 2026 race will follow that path in reverse, beginning at the Famine Statues in Dublin and ending at the Strokestown Park Estate.

“[The Eire Society] had a group of guys that had walked it, and it took them five days. I was like, I don't want to walk for five days; that's my hell. So I Googled, ‘Is this a trail I can run on?’ Not only does it turn out I can run it, but that they started hosting this ultra marathon there last year,” said Mackey. “I’m a runner; I ran in college at the Division III level. I have run the Boston Marathon three times, the Chicago Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the Detroit Marathon; I ran a bunch of ultramarathons, so I’m a runner.”

With his passion for running and a pride in his Irish heritage, Mackey saw the race as the perfect opportunity to combine his cultural and athletic identities. Come Saturday, he will begin running at 9 a.m. and has 30 hours to complete the race. But if all goes well, Mackey hopes to finish in half that time.

“My ambitious goal is I would like to set the course record,” Mackey said in an interview with the Boston Irish. “A really impressive gentleman set the course record last year at 18 hours, 18 minutes, which is about 10 ½ minutes per mile. My hope is to be kind of more in the 9, 9:30, 10 minute range, which would put me somewhere between 16 and 18 hours. That's the goal, but 105 miles there are a lot of variables.”