Margaret Lynch
Margaret Lynch has served as Executive Director of the Irish American Archives Society since 2008. She had been a founding Board member of the Society since its inception in 1994.
As Executive Director, she researches, develops, and presents talks, displays, walking tours, and other programming related to the history of the Irish in Cleveland. She helped to spearhead the commissioning of a sculpture in Cleveland by noted Irish artist Rowan Gillespie. Titled “Fighting Heart,” the sculpture group commemorates world champion boxer Johnny Kilbane, a Cleveland son of Achill Island immigrants.
She also researched and wrote a history of the Irish in Cleveland as seen through the lens of Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which dates back to 1842. The resulting book, The Day We Celebrate: 175 Years of Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, was published by the Irish American Archives Society in collaboration with the United Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland.
For her work on The Day We Celebrate, she received the “Outstanding Services to the Irish Diaspora” award at an annual conference sponsored in November 2018 by The Irish Echo, as well as The William F. Chambers Memorial Deputy Directors Award bestowed in April 2019 by the Unites Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland.
In addition, as a free-lance writer, she has managed arts education projects for a variety of cultural institutions in Cleveland and written plays about the immigrant experience. She has a PhD in Literature from the University of Chicago and did her undergraduate studies at Marquette University. She is the mother of three daughters. Her grandparents were immigrants from County Mayo.”
Covid-19 forced the always sold out induction ceremonies to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021. We tried to induct the 2020 class virtually but it was not the same. So once we were able to gather together again, we included the 2020 class in the induction ceremony for the 2022 class on June 7, 2022. The event at Windows on the River was a sell out and the 2020 class finally got their moment in the spotlight.
Margaret Lynch inducted on June 7, 2022
On the evening of June 7, 2022 Margaret was finally honored in person and was inducted by Gerry Quinn. Watch the video of Margaret Lynch being inducted into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame by Gerry Quinn.
Margaret Lynch, Gerry Quinn and Ken Kovach
