Irish in Toronto

Today, we welcome back Ian Kinsella to the podcast. Ian is the first person to appear on the podcast for a second time and his story definitely justifies this distinction. In 2023, only a few months after Ian appeared on ‘Irish in Toronto’ and at the age of 41, he suffered a widowmaker heart attack. 

Following his heart attack in 2023, Ian underwent life-altering surgery. In November 2024, he set a Guinness world record for the fastest marathon with a coronary artery bypass graft, running the New York City marathon in 3 hours and 42 seconds. Ian is clearly grateful for running post-surgery but it was poignant to listen back to our conversation from three years ago and hear how much he appreciated the sport before he ever had any heart issues. 

Ian is upfront and honest in this conversation. His recovery is a winding process and he pulls no punches in going into the details here. Trigger warning, there will be mentions of suicidal ideation and substance abuse. 

I consider Ian a good friend and a role model for being honest with oneself.

Today, I will be speaking with Seána Glennon. Seána loves Toronto so much, she didn’t move here just once, but twice. Seána and her husband, Jonny first began calling Toronto their home in 2018 before heading back to Dublin to allow Seána complete her PhD. They arrived back to Toronto in 2021 and have been putting down routes here ever since. They are both fantastic volunteers and can be seen at any Irish related event around the city. In this chat, we discuss the meaning of ‘home’ and Seána has a lovely understanding of a concept which can be quite confusing for a lot of emigrants. We also discuss living in the East End of Toronto as well as Seána’s fear of driving in the city. We finish the chat discussing parenting in a different country. Seána and Johnny are raising two boys in Toronto, Naoise and Óisín. I admire Seána’s honesty and positive outlook throughout this chat. 

Today, I will be speaking with Rory O’Shea. I first became aware of him when I attended a  screening of the long-form biopic he created for his mother, The Peggy Delaney Way. Peggy was clearly a force to be reckoned with in the Irish community in Toronto and the love she had for her home country was passed down to her son, Rory. In this conversation, we discuss Rory’s understanding of being born to Irish parents while growing up in Toronto and how he often feels more Irish than Canadian. We discuss his desires to retire in Ireland and we delve into deeper thoughts towards the end of our chat, focusing on Rory’s awareness of his mortality as well as his religious practices. Rory is extremely open in this conversation and I want to thank him for that. 

I would still encourage people to download the episodes and to share them with friends and family. Downloads are the easiest indicator for me to gauge how many people I am reaching with these conversations so I would really appreciate it.

Today, I will be speaking with Michael Boyle. Originally from Derry, Michael left the North of Ireland in the late 1960s, just as the Troubles were beginning to kick off. Bound for a teaching job in Fogo Island, his arrival in Canada did not go as smoothly as expected. But as Michael often says, ‘If you come to a fork in the road, take it.’ Michael took this fork and has ended up spending the rest of his life in Newfoundland. In this chat, we discuss how Newfoundland became his home away from Derry. We also discuss his relationship with Ireland and the Irish language. It was through speaking Irish on Monday nights in St. John’s a number of years ago where I first ran into Michael. 

Michael released his memoir recently, On New Turf and I would encourage anyone to pick up a copy and experience the life of an Irish immigrant to Newfoundland. I have included a link below: https://www.amazon.ca/New-Turf-Memoir-Michael-Boyle/dp/1989109411 

Originally from Malahide in North County Dublin, Donal has been living in Toronto for the past eighteen years, after having spent four years outside of Ireland before then. This is a fascinating and intriguing conversation with a person who has got me thinking about a lot of things since our chat. We are both well able to talk and as a result, this episode is slightly longer than most but well worth a listen. We discuss everything from arriving in Toronto with a six-month-old baby to sports gambling and its prevalence in recent years in Canada. 

Donal is a captivating character but he is also an extremely honest one. He takes time to discuss his reasons for giving up alcohol in his mid-twenties and pulls no punches regarding his relationship with both Canada and Ireland throughout his life.

I first met Gerry at a Pop-Up Gaeltacht in PJ O’Brien’s just before Christmas last year. Gerry is a retired English teacher and we hit it off discussing some of our favourite Irish authors. In this chat, Gerry describes his experience moving to Toronto in the 1990s from his hometown of Athenry and what made him stay. We chat about his journey with the Irish language and we discuss the year he spent in Ireland in 2008 where he made a film in Galway and we discuss his children’s relationship with their father’s home country. 

I would still encourage people to download the episodes and to share them with friends and family. Downloads are the easiest indicator for me to gauge how many people I am reaching with these conversations so I would really appreciate it.

Today, I will be speaking with Saffiya Ramhendar-Armogan, a student of mine here at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. Saffiya was raised in Dublin but chose to complete her undergraduate degree in Politics and Criminology at the University of Toronto. She waited until her fourth year here to dip her toes into Celtic Studies and is currently taking my Irish language class. 

In this conversation, we discuss the challenges of moving to a new country for university, the differences between living and studying in Ireland and Canada and what the future holds for Saffiya. 

Having grown up in Nenagh, Carrick-on-Shannon and Dublin, John Doyle moved to Toronto in 1980 to pursue a PhD in English Literature at York University. Having done some student and freelance journalism in Ireland, John continued to write in Canada and eventually abandoned writing for academic reward to concentrate on writing as a career. He describes himself as a sometimes critic, columnist and soccer writer at the Globe and Mail for whom he wrote for nearly thirty years. He has also written for the New York Times and the Guardian. 

His book, A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age was published to acclaim in Canada in 2005, while his book about soccer, The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness, and Meaning of Soccer was a national bestseller in Canada on publication in the summer of 2010 and longlisted for The William Hill Irish Sports Book Of The Year.

In this conversation, we discuss John’ s relationship with his home country, Ireland since moving to Toronto as well as his reasons for moving here and how Toronto has shaped him. 

Towards the end of our conversation, we discuss his upcoming play, Shelter, which the Canada Ireland Foundation will be showing in the brand new Corleck Building as part of the Bealtaine Theatre Festival in May 2026.

Originally from Montréal, Padraic now lives in Toronto where he is Associate Professor at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto. In this episode, Padraic discusses growing up with an Irish name in Montréal as well as his research on the Irish Famine. In 2025, he published his third book, titled Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine. We discuss his research, his and his family’s relationship with being Irish.

I would still encourage people to download the episodes and to share them with friends and family. Downloads are the easiest indicator for me to gauge how many people I am reaching with these conversations so I would really appreciate it.

Today, I will be speaking with Colleen Corbett. Any Irish person who has moved to Toronto is sure to have encountered the famous Colleen at some stage. She brings energy and enthusiasm to any conversation she is in and this is no exception. Colleen’s mother, the equally famous Maureen Mulvey O’Leary, winner of the 2024 Irish Person of the Year Award, was a previous guest on this podcast. Colleen talks about how her mother raised her as Irish in Toronto, attending Irish cultural events in the city and traveling around the North American continent to various Comhaltas events. Colleen discusses how St. Patrick’s Day is like Christmas for her and she also discusses how it feels to be on the other side as Irish people begin to move back home, after having formed close bonds with people in Toronto. 

Colleen’s experiences as Irish growing up in Toronto is unique and she is currently chronicling these experiences in a novel she is writing. We discuss the ups and downs of creating writing and how she came to lose her original manuscript.