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.

Originally from Montréal, Padraic now lives in Toronto where he is Associate Professor at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto. In this episode, Padraic discusses growing up with an Irish name in Montréal as well as his research on the Irish Famine. In 2025, he published his third book, titled Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine. We discuss his research, his and his family’s relationship with being Irish.

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 Colleen Corbett. Any Irish person who has moved to Toronto is sure to have encountered the famous Colleen at some stage. She brings energy and enthusiasm to any conversation she is in and this is no exception. Colleen’s mother, the equally famous Maureen Mulvey O’Leary, winner of the 2024 Irish Person of the Year Award, was a previous guest on this podcast. Colleen talks about how her mother raised her as Irish in Toronto, attending Irish cultural events in the city and traveling around the North American continent to various Comhaltas events. Colleen discusses how St. Patrick’s Day is like Christmas for her and she also discusses how it feels to be on the other side as Irish people begin to move back home, after having formed close bonds with people in Toronto.

Colleen’s experiences as Irish growing up in Toronto is unique and she is currently chronicling these experiences in a novel she is writing. We discuss the ups and downs of creating writing and how she came to lose her original manuscript.

Today, I will be speaking with Sarah Cartin, who I refer to as ‘Saz’ for the remainder of this podcast. Saz moved to Canada the same month as I did and we became friends through her ex-partner. In this episode, Saz opens up about her initial struggles finding a job here in Toronto to her fractured relationship with alcohol. This episode is being released one day before Saz’s three-year soberversary. She is refreshingly honest about her journey to sobriety and I admire how she approaches it. Her Instagram page, sackedthesauce is a wonderful resource for people curious about quitting alcohol. I really appreciate her honesty throughout this chat. Quick trigger warning for people, there will be mentions of alcohol use disorder and disordered eating.

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.

While we have had some amazing guests on this podcast over the past three years, today I am proud to introduce our most distinguished guest of all, Her Excellency, the Consul General of Ireland in Toronto, Ms. Janice McGann. In fact, Janice became the inaugural Consul General of Ireland in Toronto back in 2022.

As her appointment in Toronto comes to its end, Janice took time out of her busy schedule to sit down with me and suffer through what she called a truly authentic Irish in Toronto experience by appearing on the podcast. We discuss the challenges of establishing a brand new Consulate in a place with a large Irish diaspora. We also discuss Janice’s career before coming to Toronto and what the future will look like for her as she begins a new role with the Department of Foreign Affairs at home in Dublin.

The Irish community in Toronto will be forever grateful to Janice and her team for the work they have put in over the past few years to establish the Consulate and we wish her the best.

Today, I’ll be chatting with Michael Doyle. I first came to know Michael when his daughter Madeleine was selected as the winner of the inaugural Irish Heritage Awards for her artwork depicting Thomas D’arcy McGee and the expectations of Irish emigrants to Canada. Michael was born in Toronto to two Irish parents and this provides us with a unique insight into the identity of a second-generation Irish-Canadian. Michael is very honest about his perspective on his Irish identity and how that has changed throughout the years, from his childhood to the early 1990s and his experiences studying Irish at the University of St. Michael’s College, right up to his retirement plans.