While many students have on-campus jobs, Cleary works in the real world, with a publishing company near to his name and family history. The Monday after graduating from high school, he also set out to obtain his real estate license.
A history major, Cleary conducts research on Irish history as an intern for The Druid Press, a New York-based publishing company that highlights Irish and English heritage. Cleary studies what he called the “fascinating characters” of the “bizarre world” of ancient Ireland.
Saving ancient Irish figures from falling off the face of the historical narrative is important to him, said Cleary, because Irish culture is vanishing in America.
“The language itself is dying out,” said Cleary, admitting that his own Irish is very poor because it’s a difficult language to learn.
“You could easily boil down Irish culture to eating potatoes and drinking,” he said.
But the Irish heritage, his own heritage, is much more than that.
“My family has been very good about that living out a heritage and celebrating a culture,” said Cleary. “My grandfather would sing a lot of traditional Irish songs.”
Cleary works for The Druid Press remotely, conducting research for owner Jerry Kelly. Currently, Cleary is studying the Annals of Ulster, a catalogue of Irish history spanning from the 400s to the 1500s. As he scans the list of dates and events, he studies the relationships between clans, notes the development of the culture, forms patterns from family names.
His task is ironic, he said, because the name Cleary means cleric in Irish.
Cleary is focusing his research on hereditary ecclesiastics. When Catholic priests were allowed to marry, they would pass their positions down through the generations. One family of Irish bishops fought in battles, served in government, and earned a reputation for sheep stealing. That’s a foreign idea of how bishops functioned, noted Cleary. He’s collecting a part of history that’s undervalued.
Although the rich heritage of Ireland entails more than St. Patrick’s Day and leprechauns, Cleary doesn’t mind playing the Irish typecast.
“I try to fulfill some of those stereotypes: being boisterous, a loud mouth, touchy about my cultural heritage,” he said. “It’s all in good fun. I’m not going to say that Irish heritage is the most important thing America is getting wrong right now, but maybe one day we’ll spend more time thinking about the development of that heritage.”
Junior Drew Jenkins said Cleary has a keen ability to step back, analyze, and figure out the truth of things. From his Guinness sweater to his quintessential Irish name, Cleary fulfills stereotypes.
“He has unique insights,” Jenkins said. “His name is Finnegan Patrick Cleary.”
“He likes to talk to professors,” Darryl Hart, Distinguished Visiting Assistant Professor of History said. “Maybe I intimidate students, but Finn isn’t shy about coming to the office. And of course, he’s a good student, and most of what it means to be a good student is to be curious.”
From Columbus, Ohio, Cleary also connects with frazzled house hunters through his job as a real estate agent. At 22 years old, Cleary used to be the youngest real estate agent in Ohio. He may not be the youngest in the state anymore, but he is the youngest in his company, HER Realtors.
“In real estate, you have to understand where people are coming from,” said Cleary. “They’re right there and sometimes a little angry. You have to be very compassionate and calm.”
Cleary initially got involved in real estate because of his mother, for whom he works. He is unsure whether he will pursue real estate as a career, but he is glad to have been able to help his mom, he said.
“Since Finn has a real estate license, we all know that he could have a real job. So he is — wait for it — at Hillsdale to learn,” Hart said.
Cleary works with younger clients, with whom he can more easily relate. Real estate looks good on a resume, he admitted, but on the other hand, he said he enjoys the experience of working with people.
“It’s much more focused on helping people than I think the average American understands,” he said.
As a real estate agent, you’re dragged into everything from financial to personal issues, said Cleary. Fortunately, his mother’s ability to work with people and understand them has been a useful model for him.
“Buying a house is a huge thing,” he said. “And selling a house is in many ways a lot more difficult, and it’s good to have someone there who is understanding and knows what they’re doing.”