There is a tribe in Dublin, from Swords, County Fingal, known as the McKittricks. My friend at the Echo, Peter McDermott says “All three McKittrick brothers played for Fingallians, and their dad Seamus won All Ireland football honors, twice, in minor football.”
They are a formidable family. Seamus and his wife Maureen, the beloved matriarch, and their nine grown children. Including the one and only Joe McKittrick, also known by some on the pitch as “GBH” McKittrick. GBH personified his nickname for “Grievous Bodily Harm.”
Law enforcement examples of GBH are fractured skulls, broken limbs, or severe psychiatric injury. Joe tells me with a mischievous grin, “I used to hit guys pretty hard with my shoulder”
Young Joe McKittrick Joe in front first row left, next to mom Maureen,, dad Seamus, and Joe's wife Ela sitting on the right in front
“Make sure you mention my mother, if my dad gets mentioned and she doesn’t, it would be Silence of the Lambs. M A U R E E N, yeah, my mom’s family are Kennedys, so from West Kerry, from the Dingle Peninsula…she says that’s where our football comes from because we’re related to uh, what you call this…uh you buy no shade, Oh Jesus…Paudie O’Shea…the famous Kerry footballer! “
In 1994 Joe McKittrick arrived in Chicago, bankrolled by his older brother Brendan, with a green card and a burly, engaging Irish persona and bounced from bartending, to banking, to bar owning to the Board of Trade. Along the way he met the late, legendary pub owner Billy Lawless from Galway and barrister Devon Bruce, quickly expanding his circle of Celtic Cultural Warriors. 
Joe worked as a runner in the pits of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) whetting his banking appetite, working with money came naturally to him.
“Funny thing is, I never used a calculator, I would count everything in my head. I was very good at math. They used to call me ‘Rain Man.’”
Get him talking about Crypto and it’s off to the races. And it’s a unique world down there, they party hard. “We never paid for a drink in the CBOT Ceres bar, because all the old waitresses: Nora, Mary, Sheila, they’re all Irish off the boat, but whenever we went to eat or drink, they would always walk up and grab a trader and say ‘Hey, these guys are from Ireland, you wanna get their bill?’ And we kept telling them stop doing it, stop doing it. So yeah, but we never paid.”
Joe on left with mom, dad, and family members in Chicago
McKittrick could sense an avenue for the Irish in Chicago and jumped into the driver’s seat. He was contacted by Donal O’Brien who put Joe in touch with Bill Godwin of the IDA, the Irish Industrial Development Authority.
The three met for coffee and started the Irish Network of Chicago. The first meeting was in May of 2003. It’s a social, professional and cultural network for Irish, Irish Americans and friends of Ireland in Chicago. Today there are 22 Chapters of the Irish Network across the USA, but Chicago was the first. And founder Joe McKittrick was there.
Joe and his brother Brendan at Paddy Longs.
Today, Joe is an executive with Green State Credit Union out of Iowa. “They’re looking to expand in Illinois and I’m absolutely loving it. They’re great guys. The world of Credit Unions has changed, we’re nearly a $12 billion dollar company now, second largest in the United States.”
This St. Patrick’s Day, Joe returns with another of his genius creations, The Astound Irish Village Market on Pioneer Court, just above the Chicago River as the city dies the river green on March 14th, parade day.
He saw families downtown at the parade each year with nowhere to go afterwards. Joe reached out to Irish Consul General Brian Cahalane and Ireland House on Pioneer Court on Michigan Avenue and this one-day festival was born.
The location is genius, convenient, and kid friendly. It’s a smorgasbord of Irish culture right on the river. So in 2025 the Irish Village Market was born. I was there last year with Kevin O’Shea selling my books and had a blast!
Joe McKittrick and Paddy
Joe says: “We’ve already tripled in size in the one year. We wanted to create something family friendly. We’ve got the music, we’ve got the dancin’, food, face painting, Irish rugby on the big screen all day, and onstage music with the Dirty Wellies, and the one and only Paddy Homan and The Noble Call with Larry “the Nuge” Nugent, and Brendan Bulger on the fiddle. All profits are donated to Concern Worldwide US!”
And so Maureen, he’s a good lad. Chicago is lucky to have “GBH,” “Rain Man," your son Joseph McKittrick!
Chicago St. Patrick Day
