It all started when…

My father was the fourth of six children of freedom fighters from the West of Ireland, and my mother was a single child of a 1st generation Slovak working mother from a large family. My mother’s father’s family came from the Midlands in Ireland, who landed in New York state to build and work on the Erie Canal. All of my ancestors have war and horror in their lineage. Even so, my ancestors were entrepreneurs, building businesses that hired people to meet community needs. In addition to canal building: they started a grain and feed store, an ice business, transport on the canal, miners, drivers, domestics, seamstresses, and an inventor. Since my paternal grandparents lived on the shores in Westport and Clew Bay where my grandfather’s house still stands, some of my ancestors must have been fisher people as well.

My six sisters and brother and I grew up surrounded by devout Catholics who influenced our view of the world through rituals, practices, artifacts in our homes, and stories of the Lives of the Saints - a book intended to educate the faithful on how to remain true during God’s tests. It was grim reading for children, with all the beheadings and tortures. All of us have creative talent, so in addition to warnings of eternal fiery pits, we learned music, writing, acting, painting and sculpting, and telling jokes.

I live and grew up in Cleveland Ohio, the traditional homeland of the Lenape, Shawnee, Wyandotte, Miami, Ottawa, Ojibway, Potawatomy, Iroquois, and other Great Lakes tribes. I know little about them, yet I want to acknowledge my people brought their history to a land that already had history. As I learn more about my family’s ancestors and the messages passed down to us, I appreciate the land they came from and the land I dwell in now.