Finding Home

Season 3 of Finding Home will be released starting in the new year. Thank you to all of our listeners. Stay healthy and safe, and we'll see you in 2023!

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Father Jim O'Donnell.

Fr. Jim O'Donnell dates his calling to the priesthood to his first communion day, May 7, 1937. The son of Irish immigrants from County Mayo, he grew up in St. Philomena Parish in East Cleveland, where he received encouragement to pursue the priesthood. Fr. Jim's first assignment was to St. Colman's Parish on the near West Side. He helped to found a chapter of the Pioneers Total Abstinence Association at St. Pat's on Bridge in 1957 and was the group's longtime chaplain. While serving as director of the Catholic Youth Organization, Fr. Jim felt called to service on behalf of social justice and spent many decades living at E. 35th and Central in a community known as the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Eucharist.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Bonnie and Mickey McNally and Linda Carney.

Bonnie and Mickey McNally and Linda Carney were all recruited to participate in the United Irish Societies, Cleveland's Parade Committee, by Linda's father, the late Bill Carney. Between them, the longtime friends, colleagues, and East Side IA members have been involved in Parade operations at every level--club delegate, deputy director, and executive director. They share their perspectives on how technology has changed the committee's work even as the committee structure creates a mentoring relationship between veterans and newcomers. The challenges change--Mickey McNally oversaw the rerouting of the Parade from Euclid Avenue to Superior, while Linda Carney has had to navigate the pandemic--but the hard work, good will, and fellowship remain a constant.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Dan Chambers.

As the third generation leader of a family funeral home business, Dan Chambers grew up in the business in a very literal sense. Back in the day, small retail owners used to live above their stores. The same was true for undertakers. Going to "grandma's house" meant going to the upstairs of the family's funeral home for Chambers. Dan Chambers was thrust into responsibility at an early age when his father died young, just as his father and uncle had been when their father also died at a relatively young age. Chambers reflects how each generation passed along the family legacy of service.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Jesuit priest Ryan Duns.

Ryan Duns was born into a family of Irish dancers but had "two left feet," so he started taking tin whistle lessons. His tin whistle teacher, Tom Hastings, also played the accordion for Irish dancing competitions. Duns saw where he could fit in--not as a dancer himself but in service to dance. He began playing for dancing competitions in his college years, but at the same time began discerning a vocation as a Jesuit priest. He thought he might have to give up the Irish dancing world but has fortunately found a way to balance all his callings. Duns is now an ordained Jesuit priest who teaches theology at Marquette University and authors scholarly publications--while continuing to play at dancing competitions and serving as a chaplain for the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Marianne Mangan.

As a child, Marianne Mangan could not have known that the gift of a "Brownie Instamatic" camera would lead to a lifelong pursuit of photography. When she took photos for her high school yearbook or captured school sporting events while working as a gym teacher, photography was a sideline. But the sideline became a profession as she was called on more and more to take photographs at events in the Irish American community. For the Irish American Archives Society, she has documented Walks of Life dinners, the Johnny Kilbane Sculpture process, and parade honorees and committee members. She started photographing musicians at Cleveland's annual Cultural Festival and now travels widely to create photographic portraits of some of the biggest names in traditional Irish music.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Gerry Quinn.

Gerry Quinn was born in Garracloon, a village south of Ballina in County Mayo. His schoolteacher father instilled Gerry's lifelong love of Irish poetry and culture. When Gerry finished school in 1960, his prospects for work were slim and he immigrated to the US. Relatives in Cleveland helped him find work as a steamfitter, while dances at the West Side Irish American Club helped ease the transition. After settling in with work and family, Gerry helped to found the Irish American Club East Side in 1978 and served as the club's first president. Not long after, he began to host a weekly Irish radio show, which he's faithfully done for more than 40 years. In 2004, he revived Cleveland's Mayo Society to promote economic, educational, and cultural exchanges between Cleveland and County Mayo.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Timothy Lynch.

Timothy Lynch, an Airbnb proprietor and home rehabber by day, talks about the research tools he uses in his family history research, particularly when tracking the immigrant servants and laborers who often fall between the cracks in public records. The Cleveland Public Library has scanned and digitized numerous records that are available for free (with a library card)--including city directories, historic insurance maps, the Plain Dealer (going back to 1845), and Blue Book" directories of Cleveland's social elite. Librarians and archivists at CPL, Cleveland State University, and the Police History Museum have helped identify relevant photos from extensive digitized photo collections.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Rita Lally.

As a generation of immigrant musicians began to pass away in Cleveland in the 1970s and 1980s, the question of how the next generation would learn to play traditional music became an urgent one. With the goal of creating structured classes, Rita Lally, musician Dermot Somerville and others worked to launch the Irish Music Academy in 1993. As Lally recalls, in its five years of existence, IMAC did nurture a talented young group of traditional musicians who perform, teach, and enliven Cleveland’s Irish music scene to this day.

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. This episode features an interview with Tom Corrigan.

When IAAS was working on the Johnny Kilbane Sculpture Project in 2012-2014, IAAS Board President Tom Corrigan researched and delivered a couple of talks about the role of Irish Americans in popularizing the sport of boxing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With a decade's perspective on that research, Corrigan shares reflections on the connection between the Lasalle Club that nurtured Johnny Kilbane and the CYO sports activities that his uncle, Msgr. Thomas Corrigan, supervised during his nephew's youth.