Gerry Quinn
Voice of Cleveland's Irish for almost 50 years

Gerry Quinn

Gerald Michael Quinn is an award winning broadcaster and community leader born in the tiny village of Garracloon, County Mayo in Ireland. It was a rural area with no electricity and no running water, so no indoor plumbing either. Gerry himself dug the well and trenches and carried buckets of water from a well one half mile away from the house. As you will hear in this video interview, he still appreciates turning on a faucet and having water come out. His father Liam was a school teacher who infused a love of books, reading and poetry which he still has.

He and his four siblings were all sent to high school - an expensive proposition at the time. With eye issues preventing him from becoming a cadet to join the army he was sponsored by cousins in Cleveland Ohio to come to the US in 1961. Family had come in the 1870's and another wave in 1914. In 1898 the Pipe Fitters became a union and his family members were tradesmen so Gerry became an apprentice, joined the Pipe Fitters union and later started his own plumbing business. He met his future wife Nellie at the West Side Irish American Club. They married in 1967 and had six children.

He and fellow tradesmen such as Bill Carney and Tim O'Brien discussed starting an Irish Club on the East Side and they started the group with Gerry as founding president. Gerry said the group grew to over 3000 members when Debbie Hanson was president.

He was offered a job in Dublin in 1979 and the family packed up and went there to run a pharmaceutical plant. This subsequently led to a long phone conversation about Ireland with his friend Leo D'Arcy that was taped for a radio station D'Arcy managed in Willoughby. Gerry told how St. Patrick's Day in Dublin was more of a Holy Day than the celebration in the US. D'Arcy told Gerry that he needed to be on the radio and signed him on the spot, launching the lad from Garracloon on his own decades long career as a broadcaster starting on February 1, 1980 and still going strong on WHK1420 AM. This is the 2nd or 3rd longest term for such a show in the US.

He told of his favorite musicians and guest on the show such as Tommy Makem and Frank Patterson and shared stories of the bands such as the Irish Brigade crashing at his house. He spoke of the great Irish musicians, dance groups and athletics in the Cleveland area.

With Cleveland being the "Most Mayo City in America" he and friends started the 501c3 Mayo Society of Cleveland to celebrate Achill Island, County Mayo and the rest of Ireland. The annual Mayo Ball was a classy affair attracting titans of Irish American business and even the Taoiseach of Ireland, Enda Kenny, who was a Mayo man.

Gerry has earned countless awards such as Achievement in Radio Award (A.I.R) and Best Ethnic Program in Northeast Ohio. He was honored as Grand Marshall of the 2011 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade and inducted into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame. He is a strong promoter of all nationality groups and efforts, not just the Irish. He has played a decisive part in keeping Cleveland area Irish in touch with their heritage and recent technology has seen his weekly show broadcast all over the world. Watch the interview.

Gerald M. Quinn, an award winning broadcaster and community leader born in Garracloon, County Mayo (pop. 44) and now living in Euclid, has played a decisive part in keeping Cleveland area Irish in touch with their heritage. He conceived and chaired the efforts that led to the founding of Cleveland’s Irish American Club – East Side in 1978 and the Mayo Society in 2004.

His weekly show, Gerry Quinn Irish Radio (WHK 1420), 31 years on the air, has received the Achievement in Radio Award (A.I.R) and was named Best Ethnic Program in Northeast Ohio. Gerald Michael Quinn was introduced to the achievements of civilization at the local National School a few miles from Ballina, a school which has been educating Irish youth since 1855. He attended under the watchful eye of his own father, Liam Quinn, its schoolmaster.

It was in Cleveland, Ohio that he would meet his bride, Nellie Stack, the daughter of a Kerry man and a colleen from Wexford. Gerry and Nellie reared a daughter, Mary Ellen, and five sons, Patrick, Sean, Kevin, Gerald and Michael.

It was as a project manager for a Philadelphia construction and engineering company that Gerry traveled to Dublin in 1979 to manage construction of a pharmaceutical plant. This subsequently led to a long phone conversation about Ireland with his friend Leo D’Arcy, that was taped for a radio station D’Arcy managed in Willoughby. He signed Gerry on the spot, launching the lad from Garracloon on his own 3 decades long career as a broadcaster. Gerry was honored as Grand Marshall of the 2011 Cleveland St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Tom Scanlon and Gerry Quinn with Hall of Fame award

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