Welcome to the Savannah Irish Podcast brought to you by The Savannah Irish Festival. Host Tara Reese is unlocking a POWER-PACKED episode with TWO AMAZING segments.

Segment One: Tara is interviewing Georgia Southern’s Dr. Meaghan Dwyer-Ryan and undergraduate researcher Tiffany Le about “Trans-Atlantic Voices of Freedom,” a public history project on overlooked 19th-century Black American abolitionists who lectured and performed in County Wexford, Ireland.

Using newspapers and archives, Le traces figures including Moses Roper, Charles Lennox Redmond, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, Benjamin Benson, William G. Allen, and Frederick Douglass, highlighting shifting Irish public reception shaped by sectarian tensions, Daniel O’Connell’s activism, and the Famine era. The project aims to create a digital heritage trail with QR markers and classroom curricula.

Segment Two: The episode then shifts to an interview with Latrell Reed, crowned the first African American Ms. St. Patrick’s Day 2026 in Savannah after competing twice; she describes shock and pride as she won in a venue her grandmother and great-grandmother could not visit because of segregation, and shares her mother’s emotional reaction. Reed addresses racist online backlash, explains how pageantry builds sisterhood and confidence, recounts starting pageants at age six and walking New York Fashion Week, and says her goal is to use the title to educate on St. Patrick’s history and the diversity of Irish identity while encouraging others to participate.

The Savannah Irish Podcast is proudly supported by The Irish Pub Company - the ‘Official Partner of the Guinness Irish Pub Concept’ which means that they are rated as the best in the world at creating the most profitable and authentic Irish Hospitality Concepts. They design, manufacture and fit out your venue from start to finish.

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FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Season Three Welcome

01:07 Episode Topic Overview

02:13 Meet The Guests

03:07 Why Wexford Matters

05:20 Digging The Archives

07:32 Sponsor Irish Pub Company

09:17 Abolitionists In Ireland

10:58 Moses Roper In Wexford

13:35 Greenfield Benson Allen

17:40 Networks And Reception

25:08 Why This History Matters

29:12 Favorite Finds And Crowds

34:00 Project Goals Digital Trail

34:39 Curriculum and PhD Plans

35:43 African American Irish Roots

37:07 Students Abroad and Irish America 250

39:53 Next Research Focus Women

41:22 Project Strands and Wrap Up

42:51 Parade Notes and Thanks

43:46 Meet Ms St Patrick's Day 2026

46:22 Winning the Crown

50:57 Family Legacy and Kids

51:41 Pageantry Purpose and Racism

01:01:19 Learning St Patrick History

01:05:38 Legacy Message and Sign Off