Finding Home

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. Episode 3 features an interview with Jim Dubelko.

From about 1888 to the early 1900s, Cleveland was home to a notorious street gang, which the newspapers dubbed the McCart Street Gang, after the street that most of them lived on or near (today's W. 69th Street). The gang members were sons of Irish immigrants, or recent immigrants themselves. Jim Dubelko has been filling in the story of the McCart Street Gang since about 2010, when he embarked on a second career as a historical researcher, under the sponsorship of the late Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka. The McCart Street Gang was one of the first of more than 150 stories that Dubelko has written about Cleveland history for the website (www.clevelandhistorical.org), sponsored by Cleveland State University's Center for Public History and Digital Humanities.

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. Episode 2 features an interview with Kenneth R. Callahan.

James K. O'Reilly, the 2x great grandfather of IAAS Board member Kenneth R. Callahan, was an Irish immigrant from County Longford, a Civil War veteran, a stone monument carver, one of Cleveland's first Irish-born City Council representatives, secretary of the St. Edward Parish Council, and head of a veteran's contingent marking the passage of President Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege through Cleveland. A Past-President of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, Ken Callahan shares his hunt to uncover sources that would illuminate his ancestor's Civil War service and life in Cleveland.

Note: In the episode, James K. O'Reilly is mistakenly identified as the great-grandfather of Ken Callahan, but he is actually Callahan's 2x great-grandfather.  

Also note:  The Ohio 8th Infantry Regiment, which O'Reilly served in during the Civil War, was part of the Army of the Potomac's famed "Gibraltar Brigade," known for their steadfast, unyielding dependability in the midst of battle.

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.

In the inaugural episode of season two, Kevin O’Toole, great grandson of champion boxer Johnny Kilbane, talks about discovering a treasure trove of memorabilia when his grandmother passed away in 1993. Tucked among the boxes in her garage was one containing old film canisters. Those canisters took O’Toole on a journey that led to the restoration of original footage from Johnny Kilbane’s 1912 world championship fight. O’Toole also shares how he’s built the website, www.johnnykilbane.com, as a way to share and learn about his beloved ancestor.

Irish people have continued to immigrate to Cleveland since the 1960s. Both recent immigrants and American-born counterparts contribute to the vitality of Cleveland's Irish American community today. The community is flourishing--with a newspaper, radio shows, active social clubs, clubs devoted to particular professions, and strong support for traditional Irish music, dance, language, and sports. The Irish American Archives Society works with all these organizations and more to preserve the history of the Irish in Cleveland. I’m going to take a break until early summer to figure out how to format a new podcast series in a way that keeps advancing our knowledge. Until then, enjoy the spring! And thanks for listening.

This episode I'm going to share my own memories of Cleveland’s Irish community during the 1950s and 1960s--my growing up years. My family was involved with the Hibernians and Irish dancing. The Hibernians put on an annual St. Patrick’s Day banquet and held card parties to raise money for Irish missionary priests. We helped with Parade floats, manned tables at nationality fairs, and attended Irish picnics at Euclid Beach Park. Our parishes reinforced our Irish identity. At St. Mel's Parish, where I grew up, Fr. Tom Flynn organized an annual St. Patrick’s Day show and encouraged us to take Irish dancing lessons from Tessie Burke at the old I.A. Hall on Madison Avenue. We attended feises or dancing competitions at the Berea Fairgrounds, did danceouts at the Irish Cultural Garden, and went to ceili dances sponsored by the Gaelic Society--nurturing a lifelong love of Irish music and dance.

The immigrants of the 1950s and 1960s had a particular impact on the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. From 1935 until 1958, the Irish Civic Association organized the parade. Most of the Civic Association members were born in the US. By 1958, the postwar immigrants had formed new clubs that celebrated traditional Irish sports, music, and dance and were also reinvigorating the Hibernians and the West Side IA. The new energy required a new model for parade management--the United Irish Societies. New constituencies--women and younger generations--also had to work their way to the table, but the UIS functions to this day as a kind of United Nations for Irish organizations in Cleveland.

Postwar immigration energized Irish club activity in Cleveland. The newcomers helped to revitalize the city's longest-lasting Irish organization--the Ancient Order of Hibernians and its Ladies Auxiliary--and the West Side Irish American Club which had already been a community hub since its founding in 1930. The 1950s and 1960s immigrants also established new clubs: The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association and four clubs that were devoted to preserving traditional Irish culture and joined forces as the Associated Irish Clubs: The Gaelic Football Club, the Gaelic Hurling Club, the Irish Musicians Association, and the Gaelic Society. The 1950s and 1960s cohort also revived interest in an east-side social center, resulting in the Irish American Club East Side, which was founded in 1978.

Irish immigrants of the 1950s and 1960s had a huge impact on Gaelic sports in Cleveland. After WWII, Gaelic Athletic Association promoters like Cleveland's Henry Cavanagh began talking about re-starting inter-city competition for Gaelic sports in 1949. Cleveland was in the forefront, as Henry Cavanagh invited colleagues from other Midwest cities to attend the first Midwest GAA convention in Cleveland in 1950. In the early 1950s, Cleveland organized multiple intramural squads for Gaelic Football, Hurling, and Women's Camogie. By the early 1960s, immigrant players coalesced around one strong, competitive football team—Cleveland St. Pat’s. St. Pat’s captured five consecutive national titles from 1962 through 1966. Hundreds of unheralded players kept Gaelic sports alive in Cleveland, through their commitment to the GAA values of discipline and teamwork, and their love of the games.

After the immigration wave of the 1920s, the next big wave occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. While the 1950s immigrants came from all over Ireland, the earlier connections between Cleveland and County Mayo were reinforced. Several factors slowed Irish immigration down between the late 1920s and the 1950s: the first restrictions on immigration from Europe in 1924, the worldwide depression of the 1930s, and World War II. Many Irish people found it easier to immigrate to England in the 1930s and 1940s. When the English economy was slow to recover after WWII, some Irish immigrants looked to Canada or Australia. But the US was still the destination of choice. Most of the 1950s and 1960s immigrants worked at laboring jobs. They had a strong presence in the Building Laborers Local 310. Some were able to parlay laboring occupations into business ownership. Cleveland's economy was still humming then, and they were absorbed into it readily.

Recent immigrants and American-born sons were quick to join war efforts during the Spanish American War of 1898 and World War I. They did so again when World War II broke out. Brothers often enlisted together; six brothers from one Gallagher family served at the same time. Priests and doctors answered the call as well. On the home front, many Irish Americans were involved in maintaining a canteen for servicemen at St. John Cathedral. For returning servicemen, the GI Bill offered an opportunity to attend college or even medical or law school--opportunities that young men from working class families would not have had otherwise, and opportunities that they could open up for their children in turn.