75th Anniversary of Cleveland's West Side Irish-American Club

CLEVELAND’S WEST SIDE IRISH-AMERICAN
CLUB GREETS MAYO COUNCIL

Cleveland, Ohio. The recent visit of the Mayo Council to Cleveland, Ohio coincided with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the West Side Irish American Club.

A beautiful evening greeted the assemblage at the 5:00 pm Mass in the outdoor pavilion. Cleveland’s recently-retired Bishop Anthony Pillar graced the assemblage by paying tribute to the contributions of the Irish to the Diocese of Cleveland, beginning many years before the 1931 establishment of the Club. Concelebrating with him were Fathers John Cline and Jim O’Donnell. The genial Dan Chambers, a friendly and natural guy, was the host for the evening’s activities.

Current club President, the unassuming Roscommon-born John O’Brien, and spouse Eileen, were present. “We try to adhere to the reasons we are here in the first place, to promote our culture,” he said in a recent Cleveland Plain Dealer article. “And it’s a rich culture, so whether it’s music or dancing or storytelling, we have it all here.”

In the 1980s the club moved from its humble headquarters in an old theater on Madison Avenue in Cleveland to its present spacious (27 acres) grounds in North Olmsted, Ohio. It was the Madison Avenue location where I was first introduced to the Irish community.

In 1963, in a Fort Knox, Kentucky PX, I ran into a buddy from St. Vincent DePaul grade school in Cleveland, Patrick “Pie” O’Boyle. It was there, over a couple beers, I first learned of the existence of the Club. My family in Cleveland had not been active in the Irish social scene.

While home on leave after Army basic training, I visited the club for the first time. “Pie” had described I-A’s Sunday dance hall scene perfectly, - the girls sat on one side of the hall and the guys on the other. One of the first people I met was a lad named Conor Malloy, who was a very fresh emigrant. It was extremely difficult for this American to understand his Liverpudlian English.

Back then one couldn’t get a drink on Sunday due to what were called the “blue laws.” Private clubs, like the I-A, were the exception. When I attempted to walk into the club’s bar, a tall, gray-haired and ramrod straight gentlemen halted me. That’s when I learned I needed a membership card to gain entrance. When I informed him I was home on leave from the military, Mayoman Patrick Lynch, a World War I veteran from the famed “Rainbow Division”, said, “Ah, you’re a serviceman. Well, that’s different, Go on in.” And I went in…without paying any dues for several years after I was discharged from the Army. When the club came under Helen Malloy’s stern leadership, to her credit, I, and probably many others, finally had to rightfully cough up dues.

The West Side club, like other Irish (AOH and LAOH) organizations, is unique these days as relates to other ethnic and veteran social clubs in the U.S. The West Side I-A is thriving (3,200 members) when the others are not. “It’s managed to transcend generations, which is uncommon for many ethnic clubs,” said Ohio Appeals Court Judge Sean Gallagher in a Plain Dealer interview. He’s right. Perhaps the answer lies in another quote in the same newspaper.

Club Membership chairwoman Pat Gerron, who is of Polish descent, said, “I enjoy the Irish, that’s why I’m here.” Not only do others enjoy the Irish, we enjoy our own. The Irish are never at a loss for words and are the most engaging conversationalists I’ve ever encountered. The German people are a close second but, in this writer’s opinion, they don’t transcend the Irish.

Whether or not there is any truth in the opinion that before the club moved to its present location the leadership wasn’t particularly interested in recruiting American-born Irish, both move naturally amongst themselves, as if they are one. Which we are.