Episode 2.30 (Father Jim O'Donnell): Radical Faith: Serving Cleveland's Poor

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 Parish on the near West Side. He helped to found a chapter of the Pioneers Total Abstinence Association at St. Pat's on Bridge in 1957 and was the group's longtime chaplain. While serving as director of the Catholic Youth Organization, Fr. Jim felt called to service on behalf of social justice and spent many decades living at E. 35th and Central in a community known as the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Eucharist.