Irish in Toronto

Today, I’ll be chatting with Greg Quinn, the Acting British Consul General Calgary and former British Consul General Toronto. Born and raised in Portadown in County Armagh during the Troubles, Greg has a unique story to tell. 

I met Greg at the Toronto Irish Film Festival following a screening of the wonderful documentary, Young Plato. We got chatting and I told him that at the University of St. Michael’s College, we were putting together a panel to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement. I asked Greg if he would like to be on the panel and to my eternal gratitude, he agreed and provided some fantastic insights on the night. 

This chat is a bit more personal and I hope you enjoy it. 

Today, I’ll be chatting with Ian Kinsella. Born and raised in Dublin, Ian spent some time in Australia before making the big decision to move to Toronto. 

Myself and Ian are good friends so there’s no structure to the conversation, we just chat freely. We chat about his role in setting up a Canadian branch of the Irish recruiting firm Morgan McKinley, his struggles as a child in school in Rathgar, how sacred mornings are to Ian, how running acts as a therapy for him as well as Ian’s relationship with alcohol. 

Today, I’ll be chatting with Mary McAuliffe. Mary is an avid listener of the podcast during her commutes on the TTC. Born and raised in Cork, she spent twenty years in Dublin before making the big decision to move to Toronto. Mary’s emigrant story is not the typical one. Herself and her husband had two children aged eleven and nine, a mortgage and seemingly the rest of their lives ahead of them in Ireland but in their mid forties, they decided to switch it up and come to Toronto. This is a fascinating conversation. Mary is a lovely person and we have become good friends in recent months. 

Today, I’ll be chatting with Richard Harte. Richard is an actor here in Toronto. Born in Dublin, he and his mother emigrated to Canada when he was six years old, eventually settling in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Amongst many things, we discuss Richard’s identity as an Irish-Canadian and how that has contributed to his acting career, especially playing Irish characters. 

Adam Seelig, the Artistic Director of One Little Goat Theatre Company, put me in contact with Richard. Last week at the 2023 Toronto Irish Film Festival, Adam and Richard’s creation, Finnegan’s Wake Chapter 1 was screened. “Finnegans Wake Chapter 1″ captures the dynamic and comedic cadences of James Joyce’s final novel as read by Richard Harte. Shot with a live audience in Toronto, this marks both the first ‘audio-video book’ of this extraordinary novel and the first movie in One Little Goat’s plan to film all 17 chapters of Finnegans Wake.

Today, I’ll be chatting with Dianne MacDonald. Dianne was born in St. Catharines to an Irish mother from Cavan. Despite growing up in southern Ontario and having never spent a considerable amount of time in Ireland, Dianne is comfortably fluent in Irish. In fact, this conversation was the first time we had ever chatted in English. She is an inspiration to anyone looking to learn the language. As she told me herself, ‘tá Gaeilge i mo chroí’. Irish is in my heart. 

Today, I’ll be chatting with Antóin Ó Trinliúin. Antóin is my colleague here in the Celtic Studies Program at the University of St. Michael’s College having received an award from the Ireland Canada University Foundation to teach Irish in Toronto. Antóin has been here since September 2022 and will be going back to Ireland before the beginning of the summer.  I wanted to get Antóin on the podcast to chat as in contrast to most of my other guests so far, he has a definite end date on his time here in Toronto and may provide a different perspective. 

In this chat, we discuss Antóin’s life through the Irish language before he moved to Toronto and how it has changed since moving here. We look at how he is in the midst of establishing a branch of Conradh na Gaeilge or The Gaelic League in Toronto. We also chat about his expectations of Toronto and what he misses about home. 

Normally, Antóin and myself only communicate in Irish so it was a bit unusual to speak to him in English. 

In relation to the Pop-Up Gaeltacht which was mentioned, it will be taking place on Thursday, March 9th in Saulter Street Brewery which is just east of Queen and Broadview. Everyone and anyone is welcome, regardless of your level of Irish, it should be good craic and thanks to Eoin Mac Gearailt for making it possible, another Irish speaker who will be on this podcast in the future. 

Ahmed is doing his undergrad here at the University of Toronto. I came across him back in October when we were out playing hurling on campus and he came over to tell me how amazed he was to see GAA at the University of Toronto. 

In this action-packed chat, we discuss what it was like to grow up in Dublin with Sudanese origins, what it’s like being an Irish person in Toronto, specifically a black Irish person in Toronto, the role Arabic plays in the life of Ahmed and the comparisons and contrasts between being Muslim in Ireland and in Toronto. 

Ahmed is not shy about sharing his opinions about Ireland and Toronto, both positive and negative and at the end of our chat, he discusses the social scene for a student in Toronto compared to Ireland, particularly the role of drugs in student life. 

Today, I’ll be chatting with Mark McGowan. When I first started working at the University of St. Michael’s College here at the University of Toronto, Mark was my Principal and remains a good friend and colleague. He is a Professor of History and Celtic Studies, a historian renowned for his work on the Catholic Church in Canada and the Great Irish Famine, as well as the lasting impact that the Famine’s mass migration had on Canada.

Mark talks about his research in both Ireland and Canada and we hear about his family ancestry and what makes him shout for Kerry in football. Stay tuned to hear our quickfire round at the end. 

Today, I will be chatting with Colm Sharkey. A native of Ballyboden in Dublin, Sharkey came to Toronto during the recession in 2009. Not content with having the pressure of finding a new job in a new country, along with two close friends, he decided to revive hurling in Toronto. The sport had been dormant in the city since the 1980s and Sharkey paints a great picture of what it was like to rejuvenate the sport from scratch as a new wave of Irish immigrants began to come again. 

We also chat about how Sharkey has assimilated into Canadian culture through hockey. Both his sons, Tadhg and Séamus are aspiring young players while their Dad has taken on the role of coach. I can’t imagine there are too many Irish accents shouting instructions to kids on ice rinks around Canada. 

I’ll be chatting with Zelika Brown. Zelika is currently living in Vancouver so more of an ‘Irish in Canada’ vibe to this episode rather than ‘Irish in Toronto’. 

In the first half of the conversation, we talk about Zelika’s move to Canada, mainly her experiences being gay in Canada compared to Ireland.

I implore you to stick around for the second half of the conversation where we chat about how we have both stopped drinking alcohol since moving to Canada. Zelika is extremely honest in discussing her reasons for quitting alcohol and drugs and the profoundly positive impact this has had on her life. I am really grateful to Zelika for her honesty in this conversation. 

We wanted to put this together to help anyone who may be struggling and to remind them that things can get better. Our lives aren’t perfect because we don’t drink anymore but they are definitely better and we know that a lot of people are curious so this episode is for you. 

Quick trigger warning, this episode mentions alcohol and drugs quite frequently. 

Link to Zelika's Sober Babes Vancouver page on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soberbabesvancouver/