Pat Nolan

McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, Fox’s Pizza, Guinness, the Cork and Kerry Irish Pub and Flood Brothers Disposal present the Hibernian Radio Hour. We continue on our Police Pub Tour at The Cork and Kerry Pub on Western Avenue and this week we welcome Chicago Firefighter, Pat Nolan. Pat works at Engine 62 in Roseland and has been on the job for the past 21 years. When Pat first joined there was a cross-training program so he also trained as an EMT as well as a Firefigher. He begins by chatting to Houli about his wife, who is a nurse and their children and how the pandemic has affected his home life – his kids are looking forward to get back to playing their sports! Pat comes from a big Irish family of 9 kids, he attended Evergreen Park and used to work as a bartender at the infamous Wrong’s Tap. He and Houli have many friends in common and they reminisce about some of the old legends of the southside. He talks about what pushed him to become a Firefighter at 29 years old. Pat previously worked at 59th & Pulaski and he does all the cooking at the firehouse which has some extra perks to it. He takes us through his typical day as a Firefighter. He certainly has his fair share of stories from his career so far and he shares some of those with us including the time he was fighting an attic fire when his partner had a heart attack at the scene and another story about the prank they played on him involving some chocolate cake his first day on the job. He also shares some of his more traumatic stories, in particular a call to a dog attack on a young child. Pat can’t speak highly enough of the profession – “It’s about the people!”. He has travelled to Ireland to play some golf and his family hails from County Cork. Pat also talks about how the Irish have a long, rich history with the CFD and why the comradery and friendships in the firehouse are so important. The craic between Pat and Houli is mighty and we’re delighted to have him on the show this week! Houli then brings us up to date on the latest obituaries and then we take a well-needed trip to ‘Houli-Town”. You can donate and check out our upcoming film, ‘In Search of Weeping Jim’ at our website here!

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