Irish in Toronto

Today,  I’ll be chatting with Vanita Jassal. This was the first ever live episode of Irish in Toronto and I would like to thank Daniel Patton for making it happen. Daniel is the Development and Engagement Manager for North America for Queen’s University Belfast. This event was about allowing members of the Queen’s alumni to share their stories of what brought them to Toronto. 

In this episode, you will hear from Dr. Vanita Jassal who has been in Toronto for around thirty years. She shares her story of growing up as a visible minority in Belfast during the Troubles. Her success in Toronto has been remarkable and she shares how this was achieved, as well as the more honest negative experiences she has had. 

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’ll be chatting with Com de Fréine. I know Colm through our love of the Irish language. He is a member of the committee of the branch of Conradh na Gaeilge which we established here in Toronto. Such is our love of the language that this chat will be in Irish. If you are inexperienced with listening to Irish, I would still encourage you to keep listening. Colm and I had a great chat about his coming to Toronto in 1985, leaving behind a Dublin where there wasn’t much work to go around. He speaks about the opportunities he has received here in Canada. We talk about travel, family, reading, having two citizenships and our love of 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’ll be chatting with Ciara Ní Lúing. Ciara left her beautiful hometown of Dingle, Co. Kerry for the big city of Toronto eight years ago. I got to know Ciara through our work with Conradh na Gaeilge here in Toronto where we organise events for Irish speakers to meet up and use the language. This has been an invaluable experience for me in Toronto and I am grateful to Ciara for the effort she has made with the group. 

In this chat, we discuss Ciara’s experiences living in Japan and New Zealand before moving to Toronto. We discuss her reasons for leaving Corca Dhuibhne and how she settled on Toronto. Ciara speaks about her life here in Canada, including her core group of friends, her love of concerts and basketball and her journey learning Spanish over the past few years. Ciara also speaks candidly about her desire to not have children in the future and I really appreciate her honesty here. 

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’ll be chatting with Ken Tracey. Ken arrived in Toronto in 1989 on the first ever direct flight from Shannon.

I got to know Ken through his work presenting ‘Ceol agus Craic’, a Saturday morning Irish radio show here in Canada, which he presents with his good friend, Mark O’Brien. ‘Ceol agus Craic’ is a great vehicle for the Irish to have their voice heard and spread the word on particular events that are happening in the community.  It airs every Saturday morning from 10AM – 12.30PM on www.mixlr.com/ceolaguscraic. All the shows are made available on the website and they have some great playlists on Spotify. 

This is a great chat with Ken who opens up about why he came to Canada, when he realised he would stay here long term and how he got so busy in Toronto that he even forgot his own birthday.

Today,  I’ll be chatting with Sharon Nolan. Sharon left Ireland 18 years ago and has been in Toronto for the past 12 years. Originally a PE teacher, she is now studying to be a psychotherapist. We discuss topics such as distractions, dissociating and being comfortable in one’s own company. I feel this conversation will help a lot of people and hopefully encourage them to take advantage of any opportunities they have to see a psychotherapist. 

We of course also discuss the typical contention of most Irish expats living abroad; whether to settle or to move back home. Sharon has some interesting insights into this issue which I am sure will help a lot of people. 

I want to thank her for taking the time to sit down with me and to chat about her life in such an honest and authentic manner. She certainly helped me navigate some of the issues which are going on in my life. 

Today,  I’ll be chatting with Shane Firus and Carolane Soucisse. Shane and Carolane, hailing from British Columbia and Québec respectively, have represented Canada in ice dance. However, due to Shane’s Irish roots, the pair now ice dance for Ireland. In this episode, they talk their trials and tribulations as ice dancers, the decision to ultimately represent Ireland instead of Canada and what the future holds for them, the possibility of representing Ireland at the Winter Olympics. 

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’ll be chatting with Shaun Ruddy, one of the greatest characters in the Irish community in Toronto. Shaun’s father emigrated from Donegal to Canada and Shaun was very aware of his Irish routes from a young age. 

Among many things, Shaun is well known as the Chair of the St. Patrick’s Parade Society, where he organises the most diverse St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the world, right here in Toronto. Shaun’s history with the parade dates back much earlier than when he started chairing the organization behind it. He marched in the city’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1988, after it stopped being held due to violence in 1878 between Protestants and Catholics. He has organised the parade for the last eight years and it now has up to 5,000 participants, an illustration of the tremendous work Shaun has done.

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’ll be chatting with Alan McConnell. Born in Larne, County Antrim, Alan moved to Vancouver as a young boy in 1973, admittedly with little interest in Irish affairs at the time. Following his teenage years in British Columbia and his studies in both Québec and Ontario, Alan became more politically aware which led him to where he is today, a lawyer in Toronto and the President of the Friends of Sinn Féin (Canada). 

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’ll be chatting with Michael Barton who is a Regional Director at Invest Northern Ireland where he promotes Northern Ireland Trade and Investment opportunities here in Canada. Born in Antrim but reared in Greystones, County Wicklow, Michael and his then partner-now wife moved to Toronto in 2012 and haven’t looked back since. Michael speaks about their willingness to seek adventure in Canada as well as the difficulties getting settled in. 

They are raising their three year old son, Hudson, in the city and Michael speaks very honestly and positively about raising a child in such an urban environment, a typical issue for many an Irish emigrant in Toronto. This is a conversation typical of this podcast, loaded with very real, practical elements about what it means to be an Irish expat in Toronto, from finding work to changing careers to raising a family to maintaining strong bonds with home. 

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.

We have a more unusual episode for you today. I’ll be chatting with Poppy Keogh from Wicklow who has been living in Canada for the past five years, spending her first two years in St. John’s, Newfoundland and the past three years in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Poppy and myself arrived in St. John’s in the same month, August 2019. However she remained a fictional character to me. Our mutual friend, Axelle, from France, did her best to introduce us but it was not to be as Poppy had other ideas about hanging out with Irish people. Through another mutual friend, Alex Dawe, from St. John’s, we were finally able to meet each other last summer on a camping trip in Cape Breton where I made Poppy promise she would do the podcast as her penance for ignoring me in Newfoundland all those years ago. 

Poppy is obviously not living in Toronto but this conversation is flush with references to being Irish in a different part of the world and Poppy has some unique insights into what it means to be Irish on the east coast of Canada. 

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.