Now I love this statistic here that you found, Haley, in your reporting that according to the US census, 25% of Lackawanna County's population is Irish, which makes it the most Irish county in Pennsylvania.

I never knew that.

Talk about that a little bit.

What did you find in your reporting?

- Yes, well I grew up in Scranton and I grew up going to the St. Patrick's Day parades.

I'm sure you both did as well.

And it's always been said that Scranton has one of the largest St Patrick's Day parades in the country.

So I had to look into that.

And it is well-reported that it is one of the largest in the country here in Scranton.

And of course that's because of the heritage in this region.

So that's the history of it.

Many of these people came from Mayo, and it was kind of a word of mouth situation where there were jobs here in the coal mines and working on the railroads.

And so a lot of people ended up here in the Scranton area.

And so Lackawanna County, 25% Irish.

- You would think there is a big population, but I would not have guessed it was that high to be honest.

So any other counties stick out, not to put you on the spot here, but what other counties stuck out at you?

- Near the Philadelphia suburbs.

But what was interesting about Lackawanna County is the second largest ethnicity is Italian, close behind Irish.

- I guess that bears out as well.

You can see the different festivals and things going on celebrated here.

So yeah, I mean we've talked about from your professional standpoints, of course, some of what's going on, but personally, I'm the person here who did not grow up in this area, didn't even know really that St. Patrick's Day was such a thing until I get here.

What are some of your experiences in just watching what happens to this area in the month of March?

Give that to either one of you.

- Well, I do love it because it brings everybody, everyone loves the parade.

So I made that joke before, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

But I do like that spirit.

I danced as a kid, so it's wonderful to see all kinds of people dancing and the music.

I think it captures that there is a certain Irish quality that is about art, culture, music, community, celebrating.

So I just think it's a nice, I don't know, it just makes us happy, a parade makes you happy and celebrating that culture, but everybody rallies around it.

- I always loved the parade as a kid.

I'll be very honest though, I didn't really appreciate my Irish cultural heritage until I started getting more into my like late 20s and now in my early 30s.

And really for me, it was the Irish Theater, the Irish storytelling tradition, Irish literature that really brought me into it.

And honestly, we joke about this at Fringe for several years that we're an arts festival in Scranton.

We always were open to anything and anyone could come to, and we've had Irish plays performed in the festival before, but we never really directly embraced that because I think for a lot of us it was kind of that, you know, you take for granted what's in your backyard mentality.

And it wasn't until time went on it's like, no, like this is something worth celebrating and we're looking into and reanalyzing.

- Also, I know we're focusing quite a bit on Scranton, but there are other parades and celebrations in the area.

I think we have some information about that as well.

I know Schuylkill County has a lot of celebrations.

There's just a few of them that we could find, Haley, more than you thought, Connor?

What about you?

Did you have a good time sort of researching all that goes on here?

There's a lot of partying to be done, if you wish, in the month of March.

- Yes, I've learned over the years, my family, we love to partake in the Irish celebrations, but it's just too much for us to be able to partake in all of them.

So we have to pick and choose.

My nephew's birthday is in March, so that just makes it even more fun.

We just love to do it all.

- Mine is as well.

I used to joke that everybody did nice parades for me for my birthday.

It was so kind, just so kind of them.

I also wanna give you a moment to talk about the fundraiser for Scranton Fringe, Connor.

I know that that is coming up as well.

- Yes, we have some wonderful supporters between Ireland and here in Northeast Pennsylvania that are making this project happen.

But it does not come cheap.

And we as an organization are still fundraising to make that happen.

Sunday, March 30th at Stirna's restaurant from four to 6:00 PM.

It suggests a donation of $35 per person.

But anyone can come.

If you can't quite afford that price, we'd love to have you.

You are willing to give more.

That is wonderful and welcomed, but we're really excited.

We'll have live music, food, there'll be drinks.

It's gonna be a really nice opportunity to mingle with some of the actors that'll be in this project and learn more about it, there'll be live music.

So it's kind of both a fundraiser and sort of a kickoff to our awareness raising.

- Will people from there be over with us to celebrate in Scranton and Wilkesbury, some of the performers from the show?

- Correct, some of the actors from "Ulysses of Scranton" will be there.

That'll be I think when we're officially announcing who's in the cast and crew and stuff like that.

Not only to entertain and get to network and mingle, but to ask us questions, and we're happy to answer anything.

Whether it's about the work itself, the process, what the funds are going towards, which is primarily not only launching this new work of theater, but the travel costs that are related, et cetera.

So we're really, really excited.

We're so excited to be helping bridge this cultural, not divide, but to strengthen this cultural program and partnership we already have with this area.

I mean, the funny thing has been, I've lately been getting text messages from people here that have been getting their updates from press coverage in Ireland about this.

- So Ireland knows what's happening in Scranton.

- Yes, yes, they seem to be really on the up and up, which is just really exciting to see that they're friends there.

And it also is just further evidence how much ties there still already are and have existed over these years.

So we're just very proud and grateful to be a small part of that.

- Just some last minute thoughts here.

We have just about a minute and a half left or so.

Maureen, just a thought about from an arts standpoint, how much fun this month might be for you here?.

- Oh, you mean for the day or the show- - No, the show.

- The show, sorry.

Both months.

- [Julie] We're smashing it all together here.

- I think I love global friendship.

That's what it is.

We're reminded of how small the world really is.

And I just think how exciting Irish culture, to Connor's point, is so much literature and theater.

And to have two modern shows created by people in Scranton to go and perform and then to bring over their artists.

Like that's a really rich, memorable experience that's so unique and will bring our two countries closer.

And even if you aren't, your family isn't of Irish heritage, now you've made a friend across the pond with a whole other town.

So I just think it's a really beautiful project.

- Maybe it'll spawn other cities too to head across the pond and say, "Let's set up something new here."

Who knows.

Haley, we'll end with you.

Thank you for your work on all of this.

Any surprises that you found in your reporting?

- You know, it's been great to learn about Ballina.

I just love learning about different towns and places, and the people I've talked to say that people in Ballina know about Scranton.

So I can't wait to visit and tell people I'm from Scranton.