Historical/Biographical Note

Rosemary Landigan (b. New York, New York, 1935), the daughter of immigrants from County Armagh who met in New York at the Armagh Ball, was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Her father was a publican and one of the founders of the County Armagh Pipe and Drum Band. She made her first trip to Ireland in 1936 and her second trip in 1950.

Biographical Note

Bobby Lavery (b. Belfast, Co. Antrim, Ireland, 1948), is a former political prisoner at Long Kesh and elected Sinn Fein representative for North Belfast. He emigrated with his American-born wife to San Francisco, CA, in 2000. Before its demise, he worked in Development for the New College of California.

Scope and Content Note

This oral history was digitally recorded on a Marantz PMD660. The interview is approximately 90 minutes long, on 2 CDs. The interview took place in San Francisco, California, on June 3, 2009, and the interviewer was Myriam Nyhan.

Lawless, Anne: 2014-   https://aeon.library.nyu.edu/remoteauth/aeon.dll?Logon&Action=10&Form=31&Value=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/ead/tamwag/aia_030.xml&view=xml

Biographical Note

Anne Lawless was born in 1949 in Galway, County Galway, Ireland.  She graduated from University College Galway in 1971. She married in 1971 and has four children.  She immigrated to the United States in 1998.

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Íde B. O'Carroll at Anne Lawless's home in Chicago, Illinois on November 21, 2014.  The interview covers Lawless's childhood, life in Ireland, and her life in the United States (US). Lawless discusses her family, her education, and her decision to  attend a boarding school. She recounts her experiences at University College Galway between 1967 and 1971, and discusses meeting her husband in 1970. She discusses the jobs her husband held, the fact that she worked in the home until her children had left home, and the fact that she enjoyed working behind the bar in their pubs in Galway.  She also discusses her and her husband's decision to immigrate to the US in 1998, her children's professions, and her opinion of Galway at the time of the interview.

Historical/Biographical Note

Margaret "Cis" Lawlor (b. Co. Offaly, Ireland, 1920) remembers her paternal grandparents sharing their memories of surviving the Famine when growing up in Co. Offaly. She emigrated to the United States for the first time in 1948 and then returned to Ireland in 1954. After coming back to the US in October 1954, she raised her family in Manhattan and in Elmhurst, Queens.

Historical/Biographical Note

Mary Leddy (b. Co. Cavan, Ireland, 1947) has worked in major hotels in the US and Ireland and is now theConcierge at the Harvard Club of New York.

Historical/Biographical Note

Peggy Leonard (b. West Babylon, New York, 1941), the daughter of immigrants from Arklow, Co. Wicklow, grew up in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Her father was the long-time proprietor of O'Neill's Bar & Grill (now operating as Moran's) in Chelsea, a popular eating establishment for longshoremen for many decades.

Historical/Biographical Note

Joseph Long (b. New York, New York, 1952) is the son of Irish immigrant parents from Arklow, Co. Wicklow and grew up in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. He spent his career in management with United Technologies and Otis Elevator. He has a Master's Degree in Irish and Irish-American Studies from Glucksman Ireland House, New York University.

Related Archival Materials

Joseph Long Oral History Collection (AIA 070)

Historical/Biographical Note

Erin Loughran (b. Englewood, New Jersey, 1988), an All Ireland champion on the fiddle who was the 2011 New York Rose of Tralee, is the daughter of the Irish musicians Margie Mulvihill (a Bronx native) and Frank Loughran from of Co. Tyrone. She earned a B.A. in Irish Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and teaches music throughout New York and New Jersey.

Historical/Biographical Note

Dr. James Lynch (b. Queens, New York, 1965) is the only child of postwar Cavan immigrants. He grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, surrounded by extended family on both his father's and mother's sides. Having attended Catholic schools, he attended medical school and specialized in psychiatry. He watched in horror from his Brooklyn Heights office as the Twin Towers crumbled on 9/11. He is married to an Irish-American and has two children. Dr. Lynch is often consulted in cases related to sexual abuse in Ireland.

Historical/Biographical Note

Thomas Lynch (b. Detroit, Michigan, 1948) is an author and undertaker. He has published several books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction including Skating with Heather Grace (1987),  Grimalkin and Other Poems (1994),  The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade (1997) and  Apparition and Late Fictions (2010). He has been running his family funeral home in Michigan since 1974.

Lyons, Siobhan: 2015-   https://aeon.library.nyu.edu/remoteauth/aeon.dll?Logon&Action=10&Form=31&Value=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/ead/tamwag/aia_030.xml&view=xml

Biographical Note

Siobhan Lyons was born in 1973 in Killowen Grange, County Down, Northern Ireland. Lyons graduated from the University of London with a bachelor's degree in Arabic. She married in 2004 and immigrated to the United States.  She moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2006 and became the program director for the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. In 2015 she was the Executive Director at the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia.

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Íde B. O'Carroll on April 16, 2015 in the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The interview contains Siobhan Lyons's early life and family history. She discusses her family's international moves due to her father's work for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. She recalls her interest in Arabic due to her father's posting in Saudi Arabia. She describes her visa application process from 2004 to 2007 and its effects on her job application process in the United States. Lyons describes her work with the senior citizens of Philadelphia as the Executive Director at the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia.