I first met Gerry at a Pop-Up Gaeltacht in PJ O’Brien’s just before Christmas last year. Gerry is a retired English teacher and we hit it off discussing some of our favourite Irish authors. In this chat, Gerry describes his experience moving to Toronto in the 1990s from his hometown of Athenry and what made him stay. We chat about his journey with the Irish language and we discuss the year he spent in Ireland in 2008 where he made a film in Galway and we discuss his children’s relationship with their father’s home country.

I would still encourage people to download the episodes and to share them with friends and family. Downloads are the easiest indicator for me to gauge how many people I am reaching with these conversations so I would really appreciate it.

Today, I will be speaking with Saffiya Ramhendar-Armogan, a student of mine here at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. Saffiya was raised in Dublin but chose to complete her undergraduate degree in Politics and Criminology at the University of Toronto. She waited until her fourth year here to dip her toes into Celtic Studies and is currently taking my Irish language class.

In this conversation, we discuss the challenges of moving to a new country for university, the differences between living and studying in Ireland and Canada and what the future holds for Saffiya.

Having grown up in Nenagh, Carrick-on-Shannon and Dublin, John Doyle moved to Toronto in 1980 to pursue a PhD in English Literature at York University. Having done some student and freelance journalism in Ireland, John continued to write in Canada and eventually abandoned writing for academic reward to concentrate on writing as a career. He describes himself as a sometimes critic, columnist and soccer writer at the Globe and Mail for whom he wrote for nearly thirty years. He has also written for the New York Times and the Guardian.

His book, A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age was published to acclaim in Canada in 2005, while his book about soccer, The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness, and Meaning of Soccer was a national bestseller in Canada on publication in the summer of 2010 and longlisted for The William Hill Irish Sports Book Of The Year.

In this conversation, we discuss John’ s relationship with his home country, Ireland since moving to Toronto as well as his reasons for moving here and how Toronto has shaped him.

Towards the end of our conversation, we discuss his upcoming play, Shelter, which the Canada Ireland Foundation will be showing in the brand new Corleck Building as part of the Bealtaine Theatre Festival in May 2026.