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This is Jenna Barry at Medford Public Library in Medford, Massachusetts on December 5, 2024. I'm speaking with former Mayor Michael McGlynn on his sense of identity. So, I grew up in Medford as an Irish Catholic. Went to Catholic school, Saint James, down in um. On used

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used to be on the Fellsway, by the way. Yeah, I, I don't know what happened, but every school I went to, they're torn down in the city, so I know it was nothing that I did. I started out in the James School. It used to be

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on corner of uh Bradshaw in Spring Street. that they put the kindergarten there. That's gone. Then I went to the Osgoo, that was on 4th Street. That's gone. Um Then after Saint James, I went to I gathering. I went to Saint Anselm's. Um And Medford at

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the time when when I was in politics. It was Heavily Italian American. And people say, how does an Irish kid get elected? With in and you could see by other names that people were in there was predominantly Italian American. And people would ask me a question

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and say, well, my name is McGlynn, however, My cousins and relatives. Of the Ramos, the Valentis, the renaiss. The Casinos, the Parikas. The Pilatus Um, My wife's family, the Bel Castro's. Uh, it just goes on and on and on because So many Irish Italians have had

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married over the years, and I was fortunate enough to be cousins with. It sounds like a lot of related to a lot of them. I was one of 68 1st cousins uh in our family and stuff and uh. I remember at my father's funeral, I told

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everyone in the at the church on the eulogy that My father really loved his nieces and nephews because we could drop the whole city with literature in one day. An army mobilized. Um, but, and now Medford is so diverse. And um I love it, celebrate it,

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um all the different groups that have come in. And When we used to do our big celebrations, the one thing I always did was have a hayride and the pony rides. And I made sure that we had enough. That people would have to wait in line,

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or not enough that people would have to wait in line. So somebody Who moved in from Morocco, um, and somebody else who came from Haiti. Maybe standing there with someone who's from the city. And when they had to wait 20 minutes, they'd all talk and get

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to know one another, uh, and it, it made for a stronger community where everybody was together. And I remember I said that once on a TV show and the guy said, Are you serious? I said, what do you think you can just take out a book

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and and tell people how to love their neighbor? I mean, it's through actions, it's through contact. Um, And it was, it was a great community. And and then all of a sudden one day, a group comes into my office and said, Um, We're from the Koraula

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Center. We just bought the facility on Magoon Avenue. It is gonna be the Tibetan Temple and with I'd like to advise you that the. Um, Dalai Lama is coming to Medford. And I said, really? I said, yeah, so we talked to had meeting after meeting with

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police and security and and everything because he was in exile. He was a head of a foreign state, and he was in exile, so he was entitled to every Everything that the President of the United States or like. A president of any country would be entitled

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to. And uh it was a lot of work. And I remember after finishing up in all the meetings, and then one of the people who with uh I believe Secret Service security. Uh, said to me, can I talk to you after? I said yes. So everybody

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left, and I, I said, I said, yeah, what is it? He says, um. And you will not be part of this. And I said, what do you mean? He said, you cannot come into the top. You cannot be in the, the Dalai Lama's presence. You cannot

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not it going on and on and on. And uh I said, Pal, I grew up in that neighborhood. I'll be happy to just stand on the street to just. See the Dalai Lama and everything that's going on in our neighborhood. I mean, it's a major event.

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So he said, OK. So then 2 weeks before the Dalai Lama was, was coming, a group from the temple came back, the Gila, the head teacher. Uh, and he said, We would like you to greet. The Dalai Lama. So I said, I would be honored to

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do so. He said, one other person that you think would be fitting proper to, you know, to do this with. I said, I think you're talking about my wife. So, my wife and I, uh, met the Dalai Lama after they left the office. I ran up

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to the Medford Public Library. I started reading about the Dalai Lama. And Mr. Security showed up again at the end and he said to me after everyone else who were gone. You will not speak to the Dalai Lama unless he speaks to you. You will not

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touch a Dalai Lama unless he touches you. You will not approach the Dalai Lama unless he approaches you. And I said, OK, well, I'm with you. I'm with you all the way. I just, just want to see him. So I'm upstairs reading about his stuff. And

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that that day, which was a very memorable day. And he walked into the temple and he walked up to my wife and myself. And I said, I don't know if he's gonna say anything, do anything, and he, he comes in. He sticks out his hand, he

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grabs my eye. He goes, uh, how you doing? And I said to you today, which Tibetan is, you know, welcome because I studied up I think because I said if he tell if he speaks to me, I'm really talking. So, after we did the initial things.

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Uh, the greetings, and he was going in to talk to all of the Tibetan monks in a private. So he went um He went one way, And then that same security person walks in and says, All right, you're done. Why don't you just go out, get

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your shoes and go around the backyard and wait till he comes out and you can see him there. I said, it's fine. It's good. Everything was good. And then I hear The Dalai Lama said, Where's the mayor? You know, all of a sudden everybody's got their

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shirt sleeve and they're talking in their shirt sleeve. Dalai Lama wants the mayor, Dalai Lama wants the mayor. So he takes me to the, to the, to the area as he spoke. In Tibetan to all the monks and stuff and I was sitting there. I didn't

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know a thing he was saying till he said, and white-haired mayor. So we got chuckle out of that and then he was going out to meet the crowd. There's thousands that have just come from everywhere. Um, and then my buddy showed up again and he said,

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OK, now you can go out the back door and blah blah. And just before His Holiness opened the doors. He said Where's the mayor? Dalai Lama wants to get the middle. You had a lot of quality time with the Dalai Lama. I've got, I've got a

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great picture of me, him and Eddie Macky walking out, you know, with all our hands high and all this stuff, but the Dalai Lama understood. But Tip O'Neill always said all politics is local. Just stay with, yeah, you know, and um. It was, it was a,

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a, a great time and so many of Haitian communities, uh, Churches that have come into our community in Brazilian, um, everywhere. It's, it's a great community, uh, to grow up in. I, I think back about Medford in my childhood and growing up. I have no complaints.

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On anything, everything was there. And, you know, we were all allowed around in our neighborhoods. Um, To be out, to be out in the parks. We had Magoon Park was right behind our house. And then for some people who lived on Magoon Ave, if they just

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gave a big yell to the park, then those 10 kids would go running up there. My father come out of the bush, he'd just give a whistle. We'd all jump over the fence and, you know, we would go. Great place to grow up and live.