Episode 29: Swings, Dirigible Rides and Guns: Cleveland's Irish Nationalist Picnic Tradition

Cleveland supporters of Irish nationhood launched a summer picnic in 1864--a tradition that lasted for decades. The picnics featured speeches promoting the cause of Irish freedom, but also offered summer amusements at parks outside the city. Railroads offered excursion rates for days filled with swing, tugboat or dirigible rides, races, music, and sports and dancing competitions. The names of the organizations that sponsored the picnics changed over the years--from the Fenians, to the Land League, to the National League, to the Irish Nationalists. Sometimes the nationalist impulse intersected with a business networking impulse, and downtown hotels and club rooms also became the scenes of nationalist activities. But the same leaders were behind those shifting organizations for decades, only gradually giving way to a new generation of leaders. A new century was dawning, but Ireland was still not free. The pressure to support armed rebellion grew.