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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 Para ..read more

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 fam ..read more

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 danc ..read more

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 si ..read more

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 wo ..read more

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 digitize ..read more

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 laun ..read more

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 r ..read more