James Duane Ireland (1913–1991) was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Elizabeth Clark Ring and James D. Ireland, a partner in the M. A. Hanna Company, one of Cleveland’s major iron ore houses. His father died when young James was age seven, and eight years later his mother married 71-year-old William G. Mather, former president of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. Ireland attended several preparatory schools and graduated from Cornell School of Engineering in 1937. He joined Hanna Coal in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and then in 1946 founded the Peters Creek Coal Company in West Virginia. Returning to Cleveland in 1950, he became a director of Cleveland-Cliffs and chaired the executive committee from 1980 to 1986. He was a founder and chairman of the Bratenahl Development Corporation.

Ireland was a vice chair of University Circle Inc. He served on the boards of the Cleveland Botanical Garden, University Hospitals, Cleveland Museum of Art and Western Reserve Historical Society. He was a life trustee of Hawken School and president of Holden Arboretum from 1972 to 1975.