Hibernian Radio Sat. January 11, 2025. Flood Bros. Disposal, Madden Funds, Fox’s Pizza, Local 150 Operating Engineers, and Global Irish Radio present this week’s continuing salute to our Irish First Responders as Paddy Houlihan takes the reins as host and introduces us to 26-year veteran Chicago Fire Dept. Captain Brian Larkin. Brian grew up in Queen of Martyrs parish and attended Brother Rice before working construction waiting to start in the Fire Academy. He started out at 71^st and Parnell on the South Side with Truck 20, Engine 54, for nine years right outta the box. When Paddy asks him what his side hustle was he wisecracks, “Well, I couldn’t go back to modeling!” He was eventually promoted to Engineer and bounced around from house to house, and sez it was “almost like being a substitute teacher.”. He’s picked up a lot of street cred that he passes on to the guys including a trick he learned,  a handful of acronyms for every street from Halsted to Ashland. He tells some great stories about the Academy including how late legendary firefighter Herbie Johnson busted his ballz for forgetting to turn his phone off during class, forever! Brian is thankful for the great comradery of the firehouse and sez, “The people I get to work with are my second family.”

He also gives a shout out to his wife Chris, daughter Alexis, and son Stephen and brings his pal and regular Hibernian Radio guest former CPD Det. Billy Donnelly, who talked him into last year’s Ireland trip, onto the show and Bill promotes the upcoming Emerald Society fundraiser on Sat. February 1^st at Bourbon Street to help with their trip to Washington for Police Week.

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