Colleen Condon (b. 1970) describes her upbringing in an Irish-American family in Charleston. Her family came to the States from County Cork during the time of the Famine, first landing in a northern city before coming to Charleston, which she remarks is most likely due to the similarities between Charleston and County Cork. Her great-great-grandfather started Condon’s department store in Charleston in 1899, which was family owned until closing in 1984. She discusses what it was like growing up in a large but very close-knit family with lots of ties to the community. She feels that issues of prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics in particular is something that has decreased through the generations, and that the Irish Catholics have become more integrated with the wider community as the years have passed, that Irish identity has “mesh[e]d really well” with Southern identity in Charleston. As to the difference between Charleston and other southern cities, she feels that the Irish community and sense of Irish identity is more prominent in Charleston than it is in places such as Atlanta or Charlotte. Part of her interview also includes her experience as a lesbian in an Irish-Catholic family, and how she has begun to try to separate her Irish identity from Catholicism because of the difficulties she has faced. Colleen and her wife were the first couple in the state of South Carolina to be granted a marriage license as a same-sex couple, after a long legal battle.
Dennis "Denny" O’Brien discusses his upbringing as part of an Irish-American family. His maternal grandfather came over during the Famine and settled in Tennessee. His paternal grandfather came over from a small town outside of Cork in 1912, to Omaha, Nebraska, where he practiced law. His father was an Army officer, so he spent much of his childhood overseas, including Japan, where he attended high school. He eventually settled in Charleston after marrying a woman who’s family has been here for generation. He’s been a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernia and belongs to a number of Catholic organizations. He discusses stories passed on to him by his father, particularly about political events in Ireland, and how the events framed a lot of the anti-British sentiment among the Irish, including members of his family. His family identified primarily as American Irish, rather than Irish-American, and that their Catholic identity was prioritized above their Irish background. The Catholic Church played an important role in his upbringing, and Catholicism is something he has tried to pass on to his children as much as possible. For him, his family is, first and foremost, American with Irish heritage. While he states that the Irish presence is stronger and “more militant” in northern cities such as Boston, he argues that there is a significant Irish culture and community in Charleston.
