Episode 2.9 (Colleen Corrigan Day): Better Together: The Achill-Cleveland Twinning

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 Colleen Corrigan Day. People have been immigrating from Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland, to Cleveland, OH, since the 1840s, and immigration surges connecting the two communities can be well documented for the 1860s, 1880s, 1920s, and 1950s. Clevelander Steve Mulloy, an Achill native, spearheaded the effort to commemorate the community ties with a formal "twinning" initiative in 2003. Colleen Corrigan Day, who currently takes the lead in facilitating the initiative, talks about the pillars of business development, educational exchanges, and tourism that continue to undergird the connections and help to forge links with other global partners.