O'Durnin, Santiago
The Argentinians
Santiago “Jimmy” O’Durnin is a true Irish Argentinian. His father was born in Ardee, Co. Louth and emigrated to Argentina around 1910.
His mother, Cathleen Walsh, was Irish Argentinian from a family of Gaelic speakers from Co. Clare (most of the Irish who immigrated to Argentina were from the English-speaking counties of Meath and Longford).
Jimmy was educated by the Irish Pallotine priests who arrived in Argentina in 1885 and opened St. Patrick’s School in Mercedes in 1887.
In 1998, at the request of the Pallotine fathers, who are shareholders in The Southern Cross newspaper (a non-profit owned by the Federation of Irish Societies), Jimmy took over as editor.
He recently retired from the position, turning over the job to Guillermo MacLoughlin. Founded in 1875, by Fr. Patrick Joseph Dillon, an Irish priest from Co. Galway, the newspaper is published monthly.
Jimmy is married to Mary Elizabeth, his wife of 53 years, who is of German, Austrian and Irish (1/8) ancestry. They have three sons and one daughter.
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