It is well known that Scranton has one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the United States.
Maybe what’s not so well known is that this Northeast Pennsylvania city has a special connection to a particular town in Ireland - Ballina, County Mayo.
The connection grows stronger now that arts organizations on both sides of the pond are becoming intertwined.
Becoming sisters
The town in the northwestern corner of the island is the “Salmon Capital of Ireland,” and a place where many people in Northeast Pennsylvania can trace their roots.
The late Jimmy Connors, who was mayor of Scranton at the time, went to Ireland in 1990 to connect with relatives in Ballinrobe in County Mayo.
Connors met PJ Downey, Lord Mayor of Ballina at the time, and his wife Peg, and they became friends.
“That’s how it started,” said Susie Connors, Jimmy’s wife. “Then that following March, for St. Patrick’s Day, a contingent from Ireland came here. And I think that’s where Patti got very friendly with the Downeys.”
Patti and Kevin Mitchell also became involved, creating the Scranton-Ballina Sister City Committee and sending invitations to march in the Scranton St. Patrick’s Day Parade every year.
“Peg and PJ would come over and would stay with us,” said Mitchell, who has been to Ireland roughly 30 times.
“It's a lot of back and forth,” she said. “I've been there for christenings, weddings, funerals.”
The Downey’s daughter, Mags Downey Martin, stayed with the Mitchell family while completing a summer internship in the states.
“Patti's own nephew and friends there who are my age, we’re friendly with them. And now my children and their children are best friends,” Martin said. “You're talking third-generation friendship that has become because of the original link between Scranton and Ballina.”
More Ballina Connections
Lee Shaffer of Avoca went to Mayo searching for his roots in 2012. At one local bar, he was mistaken for a local, a distant relative he was actually looking for.
“In Ballina, in the phonebook, there’s so many Scranton names,” he laughed.
“I felt like I was in Scranton when I was in some of the bars over there,” said Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, who visited in 2023.
Gaughan said he was treated like a celebrity on his visit to the town with a population of about 10,000, and that Scranton treats people from Ballina the same.
“Post famine, there were so many people from County Mayo, specifically from that Ballina area, that came to the City of Scranton and to Lackawanna County,” he said. “They really are a part of our history.”
Many Irish immigrants came to the U.S. in the mid to late 1800s, after the famine, and found work in the mines and on the railroads.
For those who visit, generations later, it feels like home.
“It’s not just a vacation anymore,” said Shaffer, who has been to Ireland more than once a year since his first visit. “I need to see them. They’re family. They’re friends.”
There are many similarities between the two places, namely the River Moy that runs through Ballina much like the Lackawanna, and St. Muredach’s Cathedral, a landmark similar to the Cathedral of Saint Peter.
The connections are abundant. Former President Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather moved from Ballina to Scranton in 1850.
Well-known priest Father Patrick Peyton, who once worked as a janitor at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton, was from Ballina.
“He pledged his life over to spreading the news about prayer,” said Martin, who is manager of the Father Peyton Centre in Ballina. “He coined the phrase, ‘the family that prays together stays together.’”
On the Fringe of Ireland
A new partnership between arts organizations on both sides of the pond will spotlight the rich artistic traditions of Ballina and Scranton, and strengthen the bond.
Scranton Fringe, a local performing arts organization that has hosted the festival for ten years, announced a cultural exchange with an arts facility in Ballina. The festival, now accepting applications, is a multi-genre arts festival that gives artists a platform.
A local group will present “Ulysses of Scranton” at the Ballina Arts Centre in October 2025, after its debut at the Scranton Fringe Festival earlier that month.
Conor Kelly O’Brien, the co-founder and executive director of Scranton Fringe, is the director and primary writer of the production.
“It is a loose, loving adaptation of James Joyce’s classic novel ‘Ulysses’ through a Northeast Pennsylvania lens,” he explained. “We’re taking the core elements of the narrative, layering it… with our own stories.”
He personally reached out to the director of the Ballina Arts Centre to make it happen.
"Ballina Arts Centre is thrilled to embark on this journey,” said Paul Cunningham, director of the Ballina Arts Centre. “We are very excited at the myriad creative moments that this venture will yield for the communities and artists we serve.”
Scranton will host a musical group to perform here in March 2026. The organizations hope the exchange will continue for years to come.
About ten people will travel to the Emerald Isle in October, including local actor Maureen McGuigan. She will perform her one-woman show, “Remember You Must Die,” a comedy that debuted during the 2023 Scranton Fringe Festival.
"I've been to Ballina several times since I was a kid," said McGuigan, who also is the director of arts and culture for Lackawanna County. "It'll be really nice to to go back and reconnect in an artistic way."
O'Brien says he looks forward to highlighting the Irish immigrant experience and comparing it to current conversations in the United States.
"Theater and art can be a vehicle to that, as long as those who are creating it and the audience experiencing it are coming at it from an open place," he said.
“Our families had to leave County Mayo because of some British oppression and the potato famine, so for me, whoever is coming to America is coming for a better life,” McGuigan said. “It’s the same story.”
Scranton Fringe is fundraising for the trip and will begin rehearsing for "Ulysses of Scranton" this summer. From Scranton to Ballina: A Gathering for the Arts will be held March 30 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Stirna's restaurant.
For more on this story, watch Keystone Edition Reports: On the Fringe of Ireland, which will air Monday, March 3 at 7 p.m. on WVIA-TV or streaming at wvia.org.
From Scranton to Ballina: A Gathering for the Arts
Sun., Mar. 30
4 - 6 p.m.
Strina's Restaurant
120 W. Market St., Scranton
