In the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day this year, I want to feature some favorite snapshots from my collection of family photos. These photos will celebrate the Irish in Minneapolis!
Not sure what house this is, or the date. My guess is that it is my grandparents’ house and it is about 1943. On the left is my grandma’s sister Rose McMahon (we called her Dodo) walking with her mother, Mary Foley McMahon. Trailing behind is my great-grandfather Neil Regan.
When I see this photo, I think about Neil and Mary, both born in Fisherville, New Hampshire to Irish immigrants from Kilmichael, County Cork. The connection between the Foley and Regan families survived a transatlantic journey to America followed by a move half-way across the county to central Minnesota for Mary and Neil, a generation later, to grow old under the same roof in Minneapolis.
I wonder where they were going, anyway?
I hope my mom comments on this post and fills us in on the location and date of the photo!
The Irish in America 
March 5, 2022 at 10:04 pm
Your Mom thinks it was taken 1942 and shows the house my Mom and Dad liven in after their 1941 marriage. It was in east Minneapolis, somewhere north of Lake street in the 4000 Avenue area. And I bet they were going to Sunday Mass. Or perhaps since the women do not have hats on, they are going visiting.
March 5, 2022 at 10:50 pm
Thanks, Mom. I was wondering what was up with Dodo’s shoes? She looks like she is going bowling or something!