Top 100 Irish Americans of 1998 (Bagley – McNamara)

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley

Senior Adviser to Secretary of State

An attorney by profession, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley swapped her ambassadorship to Portugal for a senior adviser’s slot at the office of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

But Washington, D.C. insiders are hinting that Frawley Bagley may not be off the diplomatic circuit for very long; her name has already been mentioned in connection with one high-profile ambassadorship, filling the slot in Dublin, Ireland which is due to be vacated by Jean Kennedy Smith later this year.

Educated in Spain, France and Austria, and at the Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, Frawley Bagley earned her J.D. degree at Georgetown University Law Center, making the dean’s list in the process.

Before her three-year stint as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, she was a law professor at her Georgetown alma mater, having previously worked as a congressional relations director at the Center for National Policy.

Frawley Bagley, a mother of two young children, also spent a brief period as an associate producer at the ABC News network.

Pierce Brosnan

Actor/Producer

The name is Brosnan, Pierce Brosnan, and 1997 was definitely his year, with a string of professional successes to his belt, not to mention the arrival of a bouncing baby boy, Dylan Thomas, who celebrated his first birthday on January 13 this year.

Brosnan made his James Bond debut in the 1995 movie GoldenEye, a $60 million epic which went on to sweep up $350 million at cinema box offices worldwide. In December 1997, Brosnan was back as 007, this time in Tomorrow Never Dies, hailed by many critics as the best Bond movie ever.

Last year also marked the making of the first movie by Brosnan’s production company, Irish Dreamtime. Filmed in Co. Wicklow, The Nephew cost $4 million to make, and stars Irish actors Donal McCann, Niall Toibin and Sinead Cusack, alongside Brosnan himself, who also produced.

In an interview with Irish America last year, Brosnan remarked that seeds sown as a young altarboy in Navan probably took root to form the actor who emerged. “The first stage I was ever on was serving Mass,” he commented.

That stage was soon swapped for the greater lure of theater lights in London, followed by a couple of television shows, and the 1981 series which catapulted Brosnan into the public eye. Landing the part of Rory O’Manion in The Manions of America led to Brosnan’s move stateside. A year after that finished, Remington Steele quickly became the next Brosnan vehicle, and its five-year run was all it took to send Brosnan’s stock soaring. Mrs. Doubtfire and Mars Attacks! are among some of his box office hits.

Having lost his wife Cassandra Harris to ovarian cancer in 1991, Brosnan became involved with a number of cancer charities, and he is also strongly committed to environmental causes.

Carol Browner

Environmental Protection Agency

As administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Carol Browner’s mission is to promote public health by protecting the nation’s air, water and land from harmful pollution.

Appointed by President Clinton in 1993, Browner is guided by the philosophy that safeguarding the environment means protecting where we live and how we live.

The longest serving administrator in the history of the EPA, Browner has worked hard since her appointment to steer the agency in an important new direction by promoting a firm commitment to environmental and public health protection, doing so in ways that promote innovation and flexibility.

Of her Irish connection, she says: “My parents grew up in Ireland. My lather was born and raised in Limerick. He came to the U.S. in 1950 and served in the Army in Korea before becoming a U.S. citizen. Because of his service, the government helped him become a college professor. My mother is also a college professor.

“My Irish heritage taught me to be proud of my room and that I have a responsibility to give something back. That is what I do each and every day — by working to protect our environment, by serving in our government.”

In April 1997, Browner received the “Mother of the Year Award” from the National Mother’s Day Committee for her dedication to providing America’s children with a safer, healthier world. She is married with one son.

Dr. Kevin Cahill

American Irish Historical Society

As the American Irish Historical Society moves into its second century of existence, Kevin Cahill, the society’s president-general of twenty-four years, envisions taking the society one step beyond its original mission to make “better known the Irish part in American history.”

Having accomplished that and more, the focus is now, according to Dr. Cahill “to celebrate the American Irish in a joyous way, not in a defensive way.” The society achieves this by hosting a series of events, including weekly lectures, readings and concerts. In its effort to not only document but create history, the Society has made room in its beautifully-appointed home on Fifth Avenue for two artisans — a printmaker and a book conservator. The Society also hopes to have its extensive library made available on the Internet within the next five years.

Dr. Cahill is also the president and director of The Center for International Health and Cooperation, and professor of tropical medicine at both New York University Medical School and at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the relationship of medicine and diplomacy. His most recent book is Preventive Diplomacy: Stopping Wars Before They Start.

Thomas Cahill

Author

With a title like How the Irish Saved Civilization how could this book not be a hit? A Nan Talese/Doubleday imprint it was on the New York Times bestseller list for a year and a half. But more than the Irish love it; an Italian edition has just come out to high praise and a flurry of national publicity. Already in its seventh reprint, it is now scheduled for editions in German, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Dutch, and Japanese.

How the Irish Saved Civilization is the first in Thomas Cahill’s series “The Hinges of History.” Volume two in this series, The Gifts of the Jews is due out this March and details the origins of monotheism which Cahill sees as the foundation value of the Western world.

“I have in mind,” says Cahill, “to write eventually seven books in all for this series, a chain of investigations into all the good things in Western civilization, a sort of summation of our cultural heritage.”

Cahill was born in the Bronx, and following his education at a Jesuit High school, he entered the seminary. There he earned a pontifical degree and became fluent in Latin and Greek, all of which served him well in his exploration of medieval Europe.

After the success of How the Irish Saved Civilization, Cahill left his job as religious editor of Doubleday Books to concentrate on writing full-time. He is the founder of the Friends of St. Giles, an offshoot of the Italian Community of Sant’Egidio, which meets for weekly prayer, befriends foster children and indigent adults who have AIDS, and organizes other assistance to New York City’s poor.

Hugh Carey

Former Governor

His two terms as Governor of New York have out Hugh Carey as a man whose name will go down in history. Sixteen years after he last held the office, he is still remembered as the man who, against all odds, did so much for his native city and state.

Born in Brooklyn to Dennis and Margaret Carey, the son and daughter of Galway and Tyrone immigrants respectively, Carey served during World War II, receiving the Bronze Star, the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star and the Combat Badge for his bravery.

A year after he returned from service, Carey married Helen Twohy and by 1966 they had 14 children. After graduating from St. John’s University with a J.D. degree, Carey was called to the bar in 1951, but by 1960 his attention was focused more towards politics. He sought and won the Democratic nomination for Congress in Brooklyn, and landed in Washington for the next 14 years.

Carey’s wife Helen passed away in 1974, but not before urging him to continue with his bid for Governor of New York. He was elected in November 1974, and took office the following January. Carey’s two terms in office saw the instigation of the “I Love New York” program and the Empire State Games. He is widely credited with having saved New York from bankruptcy and introducing sweeping fiscal reforms.

Carey now serves as chairman of the board of Cambridge Partners, L.L.C., following a law career which he commenced in 1951, and finally returned to in 1983, after a more than 30-year absence.

Frank Carroll

Skating Director

Not only is Frank Carroll a medalist in three U.S. National Skating Championships, but he has also managed to hone his coaching skills and impart some of his extensive knowledge to younger skaters.

Carroll is senior vice president and skating director at the California-based Ice Castle International Training Center, where he trains students to maximize their talents. Five of Carroll’s students have gone on to win world titles, including Michelle Kwan, who won the silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Carroll trained with the legendary Maribel Vinson Owen and he also performed professionally with Shipstad and Johnson’s Ice Follies. He holds a B.Ed. degree and was named “Coach of the Year” by the Professional Skaters’ Association in 1997. He was also inducted into the United States Figure Skating Association Hall of Fame in 1996.

Carroll’s paternal ancestors came from County Cork, while his mother’s family were from Clare. His Irish heritage, he says, has influenced him in the following way: “It has given me a great sense of humor and an ability to use wit and sometimes sarcasm to get my point across.

“I feel that I have kissed the Blarney Stone because I can get myself out of any unpleasant situation with vocal skills.”

Bill Cleary

Director of Athletics, Harvard

It makes sense that an athletics director should have an impressive history of sporting achievements. Entirely fitting, then, that four of Bill Cleary’s own hockey records remain unbroken at his alma mater, Harvard University.

Cleary graduated in 1956, but not before establishing a single-season scoring record in 1954-’55 (89 points); the most assists in a game (eight vs. Boston University in 1955); and the most consecutive games scoring at least one goal (15 in 1954:’55).

Since 1990, he has served as director of athletics at the prestigious university, overseeing the largest Division 1 athletic program in the county. With 41 varsity sports at Harvard, not to mention almost 20 junior varsity programs, it’s probably safe to say that Cleary eats, breathes and lives for sport!

Now entering his fifth decade of association with the Cambridge college, Cleary has come full circle, beginning as a student athlete, then returning in 1968, after 11 years as a high school and college hockey official, to take up a position as freshman hockey coach.

His numerous charitable and civic affiliations include being a director of the Bay State Games, a trustee at the Newton Country Day School, and a member of the New England Olympian Society. Cleary’s ancestors are from Cork, Kilkenny and Kerry, and he visited Ireland for the first time just over two years ago.

President Bill Clinton

Since being elected for a second term of office as U.S. President, Bill Clinton’s dedication to Irish issues has only served to reinforce the view held by many that he is a major player in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations.

Last year alone, Clinton met with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, SDLP leader John Hume, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Central to each meeting was a prolonged discussion about the progress of the peace talks.

Along each step of the way, Clinton has been on hand to offer words of encouragement for any breakthrough in the process, and condemnation of outbreaks of violence. He has continued to pledge his support for a settlement, and is not shy about urging paramilitaries to lay down their arms and pursue a peaceful solution.

Clinton visited Northern Ireland in December 1995, a historic first for a sitting U.S. President, and he hopes to return again before his second term in office comes to an end. He traces his Irish ancestry to Ballycassidy, Co. Fermanagh, and plans to make it back to Ballybunion, Co. Kerry for a round of golf.

The President was named Irish American of the Year by Irish America in 1996.

Gail Collins

The New York Times

After over 20 years as a reporter and columnist, Gail Collins joined the editorial board of The New York Times in September 1995. She had previously been a columnist at New York Newsday for four years, and at The New York Daily News for six years.

Collins received a B.A. degree in journalism from Marquette University, Milwaukee in 1968. In 1971, she received an M.A. degree in government from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Fresh out of college, Collins founded the Connecticut State News Bureau (CSNB) which she operated until 1977 when it was sold. Providing coverage of the state capital and Connecticut politics, at the time of the sale, the CSNB was the largest news service of its kind in the country, with more than 30 weekly and daily newspaper clients.

From 1977 to ’79, Collins was a freelance writer; a senior editor for Connecticut Magazine; a regular contributor to The Times; a weekly columnist for Connecticut Business Journal; host of a public affairs program for Connecticut Public Television, and taught journalism at Southern Connecticut State College.

From 1982 to ’85, Collins was a financial reporter at United Press International in New York, during which time she edited and rewrote reports from the Mideast during the Lebanon invasion. Collins is the author; with Dan Collins, of a book entitled The Millennium Book, and her second book, Scorpion Tongue, is being published in April. Collins has also been published in several magazines, including New York, The Nation, Ladies Home Journal, Institutional Investor and Ms.

Collins’ family name is Gleason, and her ancestors emigrated from Co. Cork after the Irish Famine. While her father is of Irish descent, Collins says her appreciation of her heritage comes from her German mother who she describes as “emotionally Irish.” It was her mother who took a deep interest in Irish history and tradition and passed this interest along to her daughter.

Edith Coogan

Homeless Volunteer

After a lifetime of volunteerism, what Edith Coogan originally wanted to do was open her home to some of New Jersey’s pregnant homeless women, but after her husband Jack pleaded with her “to find some other way to make it happen,” she did, and so Raphael’s Life House was born.

Founded by Coogan and Mary Orrico in 1993, Raphael’s provides temporary housing for homeless pregnant women, and their babies when born.

Coogan and Orrico transformed a run-down, abandoned convent building in Elizabeth into the welcoming home it is today. Far from fancy, but a welcome escape from street life, Raphael’s can house up to 12 women at any one time, and the expectant mothers are encouraged to work or attend school full time while waiting to give birth. Those with jobs contribute to their weekly upkeep, and helpful skills are taught, including sewing and balancing a household budget. The eventual goal is to help the women become more independent.

A mother of seven and grandmother of nine, Coogan has always found time for giving, and when her children were younger she welcomed disadvantaged youngsters into her home every summer. “We always felt we had room to squeeze in more,” she told The New York Times two years ago. Her dedication to volunteer work and community service has spanned three decades. Raphael’s Life House, which is funded through grants, fund-raisers and individual donations, is also planning to offer counseling services, drug and alcohol abuse programs and child care training, in conjunction with a number of local agencies.

Both of Coogan’s grandmothers were Irish – her father’s mother from Co. Cavan and her maternal grandmother from Co. Derry.

Tom Cruise

Actor

Most serious fans of actor Tom Cruise are aware that his birth name is slightly more distinctive. But what they might not realize is that Tom Mapother has strong links to Co. Roscommon.

According to The Irish Times, the Mapother family were “good landlords” in South Roscommon. And the family vault is still recognizable in the old Catholic graveyard in the town, with two Mapother headstones in the ruins of St. Kevin’s Church.

Cruise and his wife Nicole Kidman played Irish immigrants in the 1992 sweeping Ron Howard saga Far and Away. Since then, Cruise, one of the most recognizable Hollywood faces, starred in A Few Good Men opposite Jack Nicholson; The Firm with Gene Hackman; Interview with the Vampire for Irish director Neil Jordan; Mission Impossible; Jerry Maguire; and Eves Wide Shut with Nicole Kidman for the notoriously reclusive director Stanley Kubrick.

Cruise’s first major role was in the 1981 movie Taps, and since then he has become a surefire box office attraction, with his movies grossing over $2.5 billion in little over a decade. He and his wife Nicole have two children.

John Cusak

Actor

Like many other actors who have conquered the big screen, leaving a string of hit movies and critically acclaimed performances in his wake, John Cusack has turned his attention to other facets of movie production.

Take, for example, last year’s Grosse Pointe Blank, the very well-received tale of a professional hitman who returns home for a high school reunion, and back to the arms of his high school sweetheart, the only girl he has ever loved.

The multi-talented Cusack co-wrote, produced and starred the movie, and his New Crime Productions company, which he started with two high school buddies, is currently developing several other projects with various Hollywood studios. He also founded New Criminals theater company, the foremost avant-garde theater company in Chicago next to The Steppenwolf Company In an interview with Details magazine last year, Cusack revealed a stubborn streak. “If someone tries to corral me to do something I don’t want to do, it gets my Irish up,” he admitted, in a nod to his Irish Catholic ancestry.

The fourth of five children, Cusack was born in 1966 in Evanston, Illinois to a screenwriter father and a mother who taught math. Older sister Joan is also an established actor, who had a hilarious star turn in last year’s In and Out, as the jilted bride of newly-outed Kevin Kline.

Like his sister, John also attended Chicago’s Piven Theatre Workshop, where Irish American actor Aidan Quinn had also gone before him. His first movie role was in the 1983 film Class, with Jacqueline Bisset and Rob Lowe, but it was Sixteen Candles (1984) that really put his name on the map.

From there, Cusack matured in leaps and bounds, starring alongside Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters, and also appearing in two Woody Allen movies. His latest role, in the movie adaptation of John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, directed by Clint Eastwood, only helped to cement Cusack’s reputation as a very versatile actor.

Richard Daley

Mayor, Chicago

As mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley has earned himself a national reputation for developing innovative, community-based programs to address crime, public education, neighborhood development and a myriad of other challenges facing U.S. cities in the 1990s.

He is also following in his father’s footsteps; the late Richard J. Daley was a former mayor of the city. A law graduate of DePaul University, Daley began his public service career in 1969 when he was elected to the Illinois Constitutional Convention.

In 1980, he was elected State’s Attorney of Cook County and during his nine-year term of office he pushed successfully for tougher state narcotics laws and raised the conviction rate dramatically.

Appointed mayor in 1989 to complete the unexpired term of the late Harold Washington, Daley then went on to get elected for two more terms. He has made safe schools a priority of his office, and has also launched an aggressive anti-gang program that seizes and destroys more illegal weapons annually than any other city in the nation. Daley is married with three children.

William Daley

Secretary of Commerce

The younger brother of another Top 100 honoree, Chicago mayor Richard Daley, William Daley has also had an illustrious career in the public service sector.

Admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1975, Daley was a partner in the Daley &George law firm in Chicago from 1975 to 1985. He then joined the law firm of Mayer, Brown and Platt, where he served as partner until 1990. From 1990 to 1993, he held the position of president and chief operating officer of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, after which he rejoined Mayer, Brown and Platt, concentrating in the area of corporate and government relations matters.

The current U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Daley previously served as Special Counsel to the President for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He also held the position of co-chair with Chicago ’96, the non-partisan, not-for-profit host committee charged with overseeing city and community planning for the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

Daley received the St. Ignatius Award for Excellence in the Practice of Law in 1994, and was the recipient of the 1994 World Trade Award presented by the World Trade Center, Chicago.

His academic achievements include an LL.B. from John Marshall Law School, Chicago; a B.A. from Loyola University, Chicago; and an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from John Marshall Law School. Daley resides in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and three children.

Chris Dodd

Senator

A frequent visitor to Ireland, Chris Dodd is a longtime champion of Irish political issues, dating back to his interest in the Joe Doherty case, long before it was politically expedient to support Doherty’s cause.

Dodd was first elected to Congress in 1974, and to the Senate in 1980, and he is now serving his third term as a U.S. senator for Connecticut.

He was a member of the American economic delegation to Northern Ireland led by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in 1996, and also accompanied President Clinton on his visit to Ireland in December 1995. Dodd was a steadfast supporter of the lobbing campaign to secure a visitor’s visa for Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.

In 1983, he founded the Senate Children’s Caucus and in 1996, he successfully battled for an increase in the minimum wage. A graduate of Providence College, Dodd served in the Army reserves and was honorably discharged in 1975.

He graduated from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1972, and practiced law until his election to the House of Representatives in 1974. His father was the late Senator Thomas Dodd.

Maureen Dowd

Columnist

The daughter of an Irish cop, Maureen Dowd graduated from Catholic University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English literature. She began her career in journalism in 1974 as a clerk for The Washington Star, starting as an obituary and weather report writer and gradually working her way up to become a sports columnist and city reporter for the newsdesk.

When The Star folded in 1981, she moved on to Time magazine, and joined The New York Times as a metropolitan reporter in 1983. Dowd began covering national politics during Geraldine Ferraro’s vice presidential bid in 1984 and moved to the newspaper’s Washington bureau in 1986. She began covering the White House beat in 1988, and wrote a column in the paper’s Sunday magazine entitled On Washington.

Dowd was a 1991 recipient of the Breakthrough Award from “Women, Men and Media” at Columbia University and won a 1994 Matrix award from New York Women in Communications.

In January 1995, Dowd was appointed columnist of The New York Times Op-Ed page. Regarding the appointment, publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. said, “Maureen Dowd has long been one of the most compelling writers in American journalism…I know she will be an important, fresh voice on our Op-Ed page.”

Roma Downey

Actress

Derry-born actress Roma Downey is now into her fourth season as Monica on CBS’s Touched by an Angel, and as she told Irish America last year, “Things couldn’t be better.”

CBS executives are bound to agree, watching the Nielsen ratings for the show soar yet again this season. The show jumped from a 13.4/21 rating this time last year to 14.9/22 this year — a climb from eighth place nationally to sixth.

Happily married to producer David Anspaugh, and with an almost two-year-old daughter Riley, Downey has to work hard to fit in a grueling filming schedule for the weekly show, but she is reluctant to complain. “There are days I wish I had a little more time to smell the roses, but really, I have no complaints.”

Downey initially thought about becoming an artist, and studied painting as a teenager at Brighton Art College in England. She also dabbled in a theater studies course at the same college, and this was enough to convince her of the attraction of acting. A spell at the London Drama Studio followed, and then America beckoned, with waitressing, milk delivery and sales jobs supporting the struggling young actress.

She and her family now live in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Touched by an Angel is filmed, and Downey has also bought a plot of land in Donegal, where she hopes to build a summer home, some place where daughter Riley can “be aware of her Irish roots.” 

Sr. Maureen Doyle

Educator

When, as a young novice Ursuline nun, Maureen Doyle first began volunteer work at an inner-city school in Cleveland, Ohio, she found it to be “cold, dank and dreary.” Fourteen years later, St. Doyle returned to the school, and she has remained there since.

In her current role as principal of Urban Community School (UCS), a post she has held since 1986, Sr. Doyle continues to live out her commitment of providing quality education to inner-city children.

In her time at UCS, Sr. Doyle has launched the first endowment campaign in the school’s history to secure the resources the school will need to continue educating urban children in the years ahead; established a successful girls’ summer program that addresses the issue of gender bias; and guided UCS to the prestigious Excellence in Education Award from the U.S. Department of Education.

Being Irish Catholic is important to Sr. Doyle who says: “My family was full of names like Kelley, Murphy and O’Brien, and it’s still important to me to be Irish…I can really go on about it!”

She also insists that she has learned even more than she has taught through her years at UCS. “These kids have taught me so much, I’ve seen in action their faith dimension,” she says. “They feel loved and protected by God. Many of us have that feeling because we were in protective environments, but these kids have it without that.”

Jim Dwyer

Columnist

Jim Dwyer, the New York Daily News’ Pulitzer Prize-winning news columnist, writes three times a week about anything he can get his hands on, and he is the man New Yorkers should be most grateful to for getting them a deal on subway fares. Although he swore off covering the subways nearly 10 years ago, Dwyer’s front-page disclosure in October 1997 of a multi-million dollar transit surplus — initially denied by the government — forced stale officials to roll back the bus and subway fare. It was the first fare reduction since the subways opened in 1904.

In 1997, Dwyer traveled to Northern Ireland and broke the word that a new ceasefire was likely to be declared by the IRA — while most of the world’s media was reporting that a civil war was imminent. In Belfast, he and Daily News photographer Jon Naso turned up at a street beer-bash in a loyalist neighborhood, astonishing the revelers, who had never met American journalists.

He and Naso also covered the death of Bernadette Martin, the 18-year-old Catholic girl who was murdered as she slept, her only crime being the love of a Protestant youth.

Dwyer joined the Daily News in September 1995. Before that, he worked for more than 11 years at New York Newsday, as an investigative reporter, courthouse reporter, subway columnist and general columnist.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1995 and shared the same award in 1992 for metropolitan reporting.

The author of two acclaimed books, Subway Lives and Two Seconds Under the World, an account of the World Trade Center bombing, Dwyer attended Fordham College and Columbia University.

He is one of four sons of Phil and Mary Dwyer, who moved to New York from Counties Kerry and Galway, respectively. Dwyer and his wife Cathy live in New York with their two daughters, Maura and Catherine. 

Charles Feeney

Philanthropist

Charles Feeney may not like publicity, but since he first became known as the man who gave away over $600 million to various universities and medical centers, the press have not been able to restrain their curiosity.

Surprisingly enough, the publicity-shy 65-year-old still manages to escape the limelight for the most part, preferring to concentrate his energies on running his Atlantic Foundation, which continues to give financial assistance to worthy causes.

Feeney couldn’t be further from your average billionaire, the Donald Trumps and Ted Turners of this world. In fact, the news that Forbes magazine was dropping him from its list of richest Americans last year thrilled him — he failed to make the grade because he had given most of his fortune away. And Benefactor magazine last year tipped the New Jersey resident to become the greatest philanthropist the world has ever known.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, writing after last year’s Irish America Business 100 luncheon at which Feeney gave a rare speech, said his “desire for anonymity is startling in an age when people stamp their names on every available surface.”

It was also The New York Times that first went public with Feeney’s name in January 1990, revealing him as the anonymous donor who had given away huge sums of money to educational institutions and charitable foundations. It was the sale of the multinational Duty Free Shops, which Feeney had co-founded, that forced him to take a step into the public eye, and he told a New York Times reporter that his financial contributions were inspired by the knowledge that “you can only wear one pair of shoes at a time.”

Feeney, who holds both Irish and American citizenship, is also well-known for his support of Irish causes, and three Irish universities benefited from his generosity — Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and the University of Limerick.

He was one of the Irish Americans involved in a peace delegation which largely contributed to the establishment of the first IRA ceasefire in 1994. He also funds the Sinn Féin office in Washington, and is proud to be associated with the second ceasefire and the current peace negotiations in Northern Ireland.

Sr. Teresa Fitzgerald

My Mother’s House

Like Sr. Helen Prejean who has done some admirable work with death row inmates in the U.S. prison service, and whose book provided the basis for the critically acclaimed movie Dead Man Walking, Sr. Teresa Fitzgerald has also made prisoner care her life’s work.

The daughter of Irish immigrant parents who managed to scrape together enough money to put their daughter through Catholic school, Sr. Fitzgerald began her teaching career in Puerto Rico, then at a series of schools in the New York metropolitan area.

In 1985, she received a request to attend a meeting regarding the need to care for the children born of mothers who were in prison. Upon agreeing to become a co-founder of “My Mother’s House,” she then proceeded to dedicate her life to this mission.

“My Mother’s House” opened in July 1986 with two babies and a 12-year-old. Today, there are over 75 children who managed to keep their lives on track with the help of St. Fitzgerald while their mothers were imprisoned.

Neither Church nor government helps finance “My Mother’s House”; all donations are personal and private ones. Sr. Fitzgerald has succeeded where others have failed by insisting on maintaining a constant relationship between mother and child. The children also learn how to contribute to (and dean up after) every meal, as well as resolving their own differences at weekly “conflict resolution” meetings.

In 1988, a house opened across the street from “My Mother’s House,” for newly-released female offenders who were not quite ready to live on their own. The next house to open catered for mothers and babies who were leaving the Bedford Hills prison nursery.

In 1994, Sr. Fitzgerald became director of a new organization called “Hour Children,” so named for the amount of time children of female prisoners get to spend with their mothers.

“Hour Children III” — a house for mothers on work release -duly opened, and in February “My Mother’s House II” opened to meet the needs of a growing population.

Not content to rest on her laurels at this stage, Sr. Fitzgerald is also involved in running a Long Island City thrift shop where recently-released offenders can get household goods and on-the-job training, and a food pantry for prison families. She is truly a credit to her faith and her Irish roots.

John Fitzpatrick

Hotelier

In his five years as chief executive officer, North America, of the Fitzpatrick Family Group of Hotels, John Fitzpatrick has marked himself out as a businessman with a natural flair for the hotel industry.

The renowned Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel, which opened in 1991, is the first port of call for many Irish visitors to New York, and its vibrant bar, complete with traditional Irish music seisiuns, is truly an oasis from the hustle and bustle of busy Lexington Avenue.

The next family venture into the North American market was Fitzpatrick’s East 55th Street, and construction on a third hotel on East 44th Street is due to be completed this spring. Said Fitzpatrick: “The new Fitzpatrick Grand Central is an ideal opportunity to expand our American operation at another of Manhattan’s major crossroads.”

In Ireland, the Fitzpatrick group own hotels in Dublin, Cork and Bunratty.

Joyce Fitzpatrick

Nursing Educator

Innovation has been the hallmark of Dr. Joyce Fitzpatrick’s tenure as dean of Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, a position she held for 15 years, longer than anyone else, and one she left on December 31, 1997.

From now until August 31, Fitzpatrick will take a well-earned leave of absence, after which she will return to the faculty as the Elizabeth Brooks Ford Professor of Nursing at CWRU.

During her time as dean of the Bolton School, Fitzpatrick collaborated with universities in such countries as Egypt, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Slovenia, Thailand, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In 1986, the Bolton School and University College Galway put their heads together to try and develop a university-based nursing training course.

In 1989, funding was raised for a collaborative program between UCG and the John P. Murphy Foundation in Cleveland.

Through the program, Irish nurses study in Cleveland for their degrees and then return to work in Irish hospitals. The hope is that eventually, these nurses will be in a position to help create Ireland’s first basic degree program for nursing at UCG.

In 1994, Fitzpatrick was appointed a distinguished scholar in residence by the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, and the American Nurses’ Foundation. The following year, she was appointed U.S. Public Health Service Primary Care Policy Fellow. She has also received the American Journal of Nursing Award eight times. In 1997, she was recognized as a distinguished practitioner by the National Academies of Practice.

Sean Flanagan

Publisher

After almost a year as associate publisher of Men’s Health magazine, Sean Flanagan was last year appointed publisher of the highly popular men’s lifestyle magazine.

His new duties include responsibility for ad sales and marketing of Men’s Health. Prior to joining the Rodale Press title in 1993 as advertising director, Flanagan was the New York advertising manager for Playboy magazine.

He is described by his boss, Jeff Morgan, the worldwide publisher of Men’s Health, as a “can do person, a problem solver and a customer satisfaction advocate.”

Flanagan’s mother, Eileen Donohoe, was born in Dublin and immigrated to the U.S. in 1957. A year later, she married John Flanagan, a Pennsylvania native and son of parents from Roscommon and Mayo.

Flanagan, a father of two, is a 1985 graduate of Villanova University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications and business. Among his interests are spending time with his family and listening to Irish music.

Lauren Flanigan

Soprano

When she was a young schoolgirl in San Francisco, Lauren Flanigan played one of the children in the opera production of Turn of the Screw. Twenty-six years later, her fully-developed soprano voice soared through the New York State Theater as she again appeared in Turn of the Screw, this time as the children’s governess.

Last season, Flanigan made her debut at Milan’s La Scala as Abigaille in Nabucco; she has also starred as Violetta in La Traviata at the Seattle Opera House and as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s opera at the New York City Opera. 

Flanigan’s performances have been described by critics as “captivating,” “convincing,” “wondrously accurate and full of tigerish temperament.”

Of her Lady Macbeth, New York magazine said: “Lauren Flanigan…[delivers] a superbly sung Lady Macbeth, an interpretation that’s likely to grow even more effective over time. Her wideranging soprano responds easily to the music’s demonic intensity as well as to its more conventional bel canto requirements.”

Prior to her opera career taking off, Flanigan worked as a management consultant at the firm of McKinsey &Co. in New York.

Peter Flanigan

Children’s Volunteer

In the 12 years since Peter Flanigan founded The Student/Sponsor Partnership to help achieve better school education for innercity children, almost 2,000 students have benefited. Last year alone, SSP sent over 1,000 innercity kids to private high schools.

Flanigan, a director of New York City international investment banker Dillon, Read &Co., realized that for many of these children, finishing high school depended on more than the promise of free college education he was offering. After learning that Catholic schools had a lower dropout rate, he began to talk public school students into attending the private schools.

By persuading several businesses to contribute to tuition fees, and matching students with a mentor who provided moral support, Flanigan got The Student/Sponsor Partnership off to a flying start.

In 1987, he started the Patrons Program to encourage individuals to take responsibility for inner-city Catholic grammar schools which were threatened with closure due to lack of finance.

Flanigan and his wife Brigid, a daughter of an Irish immigrant and former Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow, are chairpersons of St. Ann’s School in Harlem. A former assistant to President Richard Nixon, with responsibility for domestic, commercial and economic matters, Flanigan currently serves as director of Anheuser-Busch Companies and is a member of the New York City Partnership’s education committee. Flanigan’s grandfather left Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick during the Irish Famine, and he attributes his faith and “romantic disposition” to his Irish heritage.

Thomas Fleming

Author

1997 was the year in which the American Revolution sprung resoundingly to life again. thanks to the efforts of Tom Fleming, the historian and novelist, author of more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction.

The release of Fleming’s Liberty! — a well-researched 400-page narrative accompanied by more than 200 full-color illustrations — was followed by a six-hour PBS documentary series of the same name and a soundtrack CD, featuring James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor.

In one section of the book Fleming, whose maternal and paternal grandparents were born in Ireland, describes the role of Irish soldiers in the Revolution. He mentions a gravestone in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, remarking on the inscription which, he says, is an “apt summary of the Irish role in the Revolution.”

The inscription reads: “Here lies the remains of John Lewis, who slew the Irish lord, settled in Augusta County, located the town of Staunton and furnished five sons of fight the battles of the American Revolution.”

Fleming’s previous works include West Point: The Men and Times of the U.S. Military Academy; Over There, about the American experience in World S. Truman, co-written with Margaret Truman in 1972.

Michael Flatley

Lord of the Dance

Critics struggle to outdo each other when it comes to superlatives to describe the dance maestro. “Truly great,” says one critic, “a master,” boldly proclaims another, while a third can only gasp, “[Flatley is] the centerpiece [of the show].”

And there’s more. Some years ago, National Geographic magazine described Flatley as a “national treasure.” These days, the description is more likely to be more of a global treasure, as Flatley’s Lord of the Dance continues to circumnavigate the world, playing to packed houses everywhere.

Late last year, fans gasped in shock when Flatley collapsed on stage and had to take a few weeks off to recover. But he was soon back in the spotlight, continuing to push his body relentlessly, and past seemingly unconquerable limits. One only has to look around at a Flatley show to see jaws drop as uncomprehending spectators wonder how two human feet can move so fast. How fast? Flatley has been recorded doing an astounding 28 taps per second, managing in the process to set a world record.

Formerly involved with Riverdance, until a dispute caused a parting of the ways, Flatley’s decision to set up Lord of the Dance was mocked by people who felt there was no room for a second stage show based on Irish dancing. In the eighteen months since Lord of the Dance debuted in Dublin’s Point Theater, the critics have been noticeably silenced, and it is Flatley, by now a multi-millionaire, who is having the last laugh.

“I can now say that getting pushed out of Riverdance was the best thing that ever happened to me, even though it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time,” he told London’s Daily Express even before Lord of the Dance had opened. “When you’re in a show that’s as successful as Riverdance, there’s a real danger of being bought off by the money. It’s so much easier to stay, even if you’re stagnating doing the same stuff night after night. The money is great, you’re in a hit show, why change anything?”

Two months after the show had opened, selling out night after night in Liverpool, Manchester and London, Flatley finally had the vindication he sought, and he described his brainchild enthusiastically to London’s Midweek Magazine.

“Lord of the Dance is a big step forward for Irish dancing and music because for the first time it means that 50 or so Irish artists can make a living doing what they’re doing. And it’s completely different to anything that’s gone before,” he said.

The son of a Sligo-born construction worker, Flatley was comparatively old when he took up Irish dancing, and a teacher told him that 11 was really too late to start. His determination propelled him forward however, and his perseverance paid off when he became the first American to win the All-World Championships in Irish Dancing.

Flatley has numerous other awards to his credit — he was the youngest ever recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from President Ronald Reagan; the American National Endowment for the Arts recognized him as one of his country’s greatest performers; he received a Master of Dance Award for his contribution to his chosen art.

Dancing is not the only art form Flatley has mastered. He is also an accomplished flautist and a superb chess player. Swiftly sure-footed, he was also a Golden Gloves boxing champion in Chicago, and he is a member of Mensa.

Last year, Flatley and a selection of his troupe wowed worldwide audiences when they performed at the Oscars, and gossip columnists everywhere mentioned his knockout performance. What’s next? Well, not content with dominating every stage in the world, watch a screen near you for Michael Flatley playing Michael Flatley in a movie about his life and phenomenal success.

Bill Flynn

Peace Broker

There is hardly enough space in these pages to list the many awards and accolades bestowed on Bill Flynn down through the years. The genial Mutual of America chairman has definitely been there and done it all.

Not only has he excelled in his forty year plus career, 26 of which years have been spent at the helm of Mutual, but the native New Yorker has also given of his time and his resources to foster a number of causes dear to his heart. Chief among these, of course, is his devotion to Ireland and Irish causes.

In recognition of this dedication, Flynn last year received the first ever Initiative for Peace Award from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. As chairman of this committee, Flynn’s advice was instrumental in the decision by President Clinton to grant a U.S. visa to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Flynn also sponsored two trips to the U.S. by leading loyalists, and he has led two delegations to Northern Ireland to push for economic investment and peace in the region.

Flynn is president of the board of Flax Trust America; a member of the board of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation; and the Ireland America Advisory Board. In the past, he has chaired the Ireland Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. and has been a board member of several organizations, including The American Cancer Society Foundation; Co-Operation Ireland; The American Irish Legal Research and Education Foundation: and The Catholic Health Association of the United States.

Flynn, the son of a County Down father and a Mayo mother, was the Grand Marshal of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade. In 1994, he was Irish America’s Irish American of the Year. Flynn and his wife Peg, have four children.

John Fogerty

Singer/Songwriter

Best known for his involvement with superband Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late 1960s and early `70s, John Fogerty has burst back on to the music scene after an absence of over 10 years.

His new album, Blue Moon Swamp, which follows the 1985 Centerfield, has been getting nothing but rave reviews from almost every rock critic imaginable, and Fogerty has had to get used all over again to being in demand.

Fogerty hit the road last summer, touring for the first time since the mid-`80s, and his mix of old tunes and new went down a treat with fans old and new. Many of the great Creedence Clearwater Revival hits had survived well, including “Proud Mary,” “Lodi” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”

For his new album, Fogerty spent over five years tinkering with a dozen songs, teaching himself to play two new instruments in the process — bottleneck guitar and the dobro.

Fogerty’s stint as leader and chief songwriter for Creedence Clearwater Revival earned him an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it is this newer work that makes him most proud. “I feel as if I’ve landed right in the middle of where I should be. I can’t be anything other than what I am, and I feel very strong and very comfortable with the musician and songwriter that I’ve become,” he said.

Glenn Foley

Quarterback

Following in his father’s footsteps as a stand-out quarterback for Boston College, Glenn Foley saw some of the most extensive playing of his career in 1996, when he started three games and played in five.

Foley did so against the odds. He managed to make a successful comeback from a serious shoulder injury that required surgery to repair ligament damage suffered in a game during the 1995 season.

In 1996, Foley was the third quarterback for the first six games, behind veterans Neil O’Donnell and Frank Reich. He played backup to Reich in game seven, and replaced the more experienced player in the third quarter.

A two-time All-America player who had a stellar career with the Golden Eagles, Foley is Boston College’s all-time leader in attempts (1275), completions (703), touchdown passes (72) and career starts (44). He is also the only quarterback in Boston College history to pass for 2000 yards in four straight seasons.

Foley took time during the past off-season to get married. Born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, he received his BA degree in sociology.

Eileen Ford

Ford Model Agency

A good sense of humor is just one of the personality traits that Eileen Ford attributes to her Irish heritage. Her grandmother emigrated from Longford during the Famine years, and Ford can still remember her own father’s disgust when she failed to name her first daughter, born on St. Patrick’s Day, Patricia.

As a former model, Ford knew better than anyone the difficulties of a life spent on the go, and when she and husband Jerry launched Ford Models in 1946 they soon had girls flocking to their door for management advice.

The small walk-up office on Second Avenue in New York has since been replaced with a fashionable red-brick building, and the business has bloomed into a multi-million-dollar corporation, but Ford girls continue to be assured of close personal attention and the very best of representation. Christie Brinkley, Vendela, Rachel Hunter and Christy Turlington have all been represented by Ford.

Ford travels the U.S. and Europe constantly, always on the lookout for new talent. She has also found the time to write five beauty books, and is frequently sought out for her fashion and beauty advice. A mother of four grown children, Ford has now been joined in the family business by her son, his wife, and one of her daughters.

Peter Gallagher

Actor

His piercing blue eves and jet black hair have made him a firm favorite with legions of female fans, but Peter Gallagher is also well respected for his acting skills. The Armonk, New York native made his professional stage debut in the 1977 revival of Hair, and followed this up with a starring role in a Broadway production of Grease.

From there, the big screen beckoned, and he featured in Bob Roberts and The Hudsucker Proxy, both with Tim Robbins; While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock; and To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday with Michelle Pfeiffer.

Describing his family history in an interview with US magazine last year, Gallagher said his mother’s parents “were right off the boat from Ireland.”

Gallagher’s latest movie role was playing alongside Bill Murray in the comedy The Man Who Knew Too Little, and he also appeared as an FBI detective in the HBO special, Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing.

He has not forgotten his stage roots, however, and regularly returns to tread the boards, having recently appeared at New York’s City Center in the musical revival PaI Joey.

Jane Garvey

FAA Administrator

An outstanding career in public service and extensive administrative experience amply qualified Jane Garvey for her latest appointment as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

As administrator, Garvey manages a 48,000-person agency with worldwide impact and presence in promoting aviation safety and security, and she herself has brought to the FAA a strong commitment to ensure that the world’s safest skies become even safer.

Before being named FAA administrator, the first ever to be confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term, Garvey was acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). She served as deputy administrator of that body from 1993-1997. During her term there, she chaired FHWA’s Innovative Financing Initiative, which resulted in more than $4 billion in transportation investment in more than 30 states.

A graduate of Mount Saint Mary College and Mount Holyoke College, Garvey has also participated in the fellowship program for public leaders at Harvard University.

Mark Gearan

Peace Corps

Since becoming director of the Peace Corps in 1995, Mark Gearan has worked tirelessly to prepare the agency for the 21 st century by building on its proud legacy of service over the last 36 years.

Gearan’s highest priority is to support nearly 6,500 Peace Corps volunteers serving in 87 countries worldwide. Under his leadership, volunteers are serving for the first time in South Africa and Jordan. 1996 also saw the return of volunteers to Haiti, after a fiveyear absence.

Gearan has also launched the Crisis Corps, a new program within the Peace Corps that allows volunteers and returned Peace Corps volunteers to provide shortterm assistance to communities during humanitarian crises and natural disasters. From 1993-’95, Gearan served as assistant to the President and director of communications, as well as White House deputy chief of staff. He has traveled extensively with President Clinton to Ireland, Russia, Japan, the Middle East and Germany.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Gearan was Al Gore’s campaign manager, and was appointed deputy director of President-elect Clintoh’s transition team. He has also served as executive director of the Democratic Governors’ Association; director of the Massachusetts Office of Federal Relations; and headquarters press secretary for Governor Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign.

ABA graduate of Harvard University, Gearan also has a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is married with one daughter.

Loretta Brennan Glucksman

American Ireland Fund

Serving as president of the largest philanthropy raising funds for programs of peace, culture, education and community development in Ireland is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing Loretta Brennan Glucksman’s commitment to serving Ireland’s people and culture.

She has served on boards of the Irish American Cultural Institute, Cooperation Ireland and the Ireland-U.S. Council for Commerce and Industry. She also serves as a trustee of both the Trinity College Foundation and the National Library of Ireland and is co-chair of the Glucksman Ireland House, the center for Irish Studies at New York University endowed by her husband Lewis Glucksman. The couple have also led the drive to build the new library at University of Limerick and she serves on the University Concert Hall board of directors in Limerick.

Brennan Glucksman’s dedication has not been without recognition. She was conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree by Trinity College Dublin and has been honored by the American Irish Historical Society when they presented her with their Gold Medal of Honor. She was also elected international patron of the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.

She and her husband have five children and five grandchildren. They reside in Manhattan and have a home in Ballingarry, Co. Limerick. 

Al Gore

Vice President

Vice President Al Gore discovered his Irish roots only three years ago, and said he intended to visit Ireland to search further. He also showed his interest in all things Irish by attending a New York forum on Irish affairs before the 1996 election.

Gore is known for his commitment to the environment, and during his 19 years in public life, including spells with the U.S. Congress and the Senate, he has gained national recognition for his leadership qualities and his unstinting advocacy for consumers.

He is the author of the bestseller Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, which outlines an international plan of action to confront the global environmental crisis.

As Vice President, Gore has won acclaim for his quiet but extremely effective handling of the office. The son of former Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, St., Gore was raised in Carthage, Tennessee and in Washington, D.C.

He graduated Harvard University with an honors degree in government in 1969, and subsequently served in Vietnam before running for Congress, where he spent eight years. In 1984, Gore was elected to the Senate, and was reelected in 1990 after becoming the first politician in history to win all of Tennessee’s counties.

Eamon Grennan

Poet/Professor

His poems have been described by one critic as luminous and scrupulous, and he himself has been called “a virtuoso of daily life” and “a poet of the cosmic kitchen,” but by day Eamon Grennan is professor of English at Vassar College.

A native of Ireland, Grennan has taught at Vassar for over 20 years. He attended university in Ireland and then lived in Italy for a time, finally landing in the U.S., where he earned his doctorate at Harvard. A teaching job at Vassar followed but by 1977 Grennan began to feel that it was time to see if he could still write poetry.

A year’s sabbatical in Ireland, of “putting poetry a little closer to the center,” as he calls it, was enough to convince him that he had not lost his talent, and the poems written at that time formed the basis for his first collection, Wildly for Days. Two more collections followed and the fourth, So It Goes, will shortly be published.

Grennan’s poems have been published in numerous literary magazines including The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic and Poetry Ireland Review. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995.

Like many Irish immigrants, Grennan has had to get used to a feeling of bi-location. He says: “I conduct myself fin a kind of amphibian way, being Irish in America, and in Ireland being somewhat American. Of course, I spend much more of my life here now, but I move back and forth, and I’ve gradually come to feel that sort of migratory condition is appropriate to me.”

William Griffin

Historian

The son of immigrants from County Kerry, William Griffin is professor of history at St. John’s University in New York. He has lectured on Irish and Irish-American history throughout North America and Ireland, as well as in Oxford, Paris and Hungary.

He is the author of eight books, including A Portrait of the Irish in America (1983), The Book of Irish Americans (1991), and Irish Americans: The Immigrant Experience (1998). He has also written some four dozen articles and essays on Ireland and the Irish abroad. Griffin is a regular participant in numerous television and radio documentaries on the Irish in America, either as consultant or on-air speaker, and he is frequently cited in the print media. A co-founder and former president of the New York Irish History Roundtable, Griffin also co-founded and was former chairman of the Columbia University Seminar on Irish Studies. He has served as an officer of The American Conference on Irish Studies, The American Irish Historical Society and the Association for Multi-Ethnic Studies. A fellow of the Royal Irish Society on Antiquaries, and a life member of the Military History Society of Ireland, he was appointed by the President to the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration’s Ethnic Heritage Advisory Committee.

Mary Guinan

Physician/Scientist

For almost 20 years, Dr. Mary Guinan has been based at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta where she currently holds the position of chief scientific advisor.

In the late 1970s, Guinan was at the forefront of research into genital herpes, and she was a member, in 1981, of the initial CDC task force gathered to investigate the mysterious disease that later became known as AIDS.

Since then, AIDS has been the overwhelming concern in Guinan’s life. She continues to educate, bringing women’s and children’s issues to the forefront. Guinan published the first scientific paper documenting the epidemic of AIDS in women in the U.S. and she was also one of the first to point out the present epidemic of AIDS in children and the need for prevention programs for women of child-bearing age.

In 1989, Guinan was on the shortlist for surgeon general, and was strongly supported for the post by Jonathan Bush, a brother of former President George Bush.

Both of Guinan’s parents came from Irish farms. Her father left his home in County Offaly and met her mother on the ship from Cobh, Co. Cork after she had left her native Co. Kerry.

Well known for her work in the field of infectious diseases, Guinan has appeared on such TV shows as 60 Minutes, MacNeilLehrer, Phil Donahue and ABC Nightline. Her work has also been singled out for praise by such publications as Time, Newsweek and numerous newspapers.

Guinan is married to internationally renowned parasitologist Peter Schantz and is mother to a 14-year-old son, as well as stepmother to Schantz’s two daughters. Guinan has won several trophies for running, and achieved a lifelong goal when she finished the Boston Marathon in 1978.

She also enjoys playing the fiddle and intends to participate in old-timers fidding contests when she hits the age of 75. She and her sister, Dr. Joan Lunney, were champion Irish stepdancers and fiddle players. They have also established The Guinan Irish Studies Fund of the W.B. Yeats Foundation of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Guinan is a supporter of Theatre Gad and the annual Celtic festival in Atlanta and she is currently studying the Irish language.

Pete Hamill

Author

A shorter-than-expected tenure as editor-in-chief of the New York Daily, News can hardly have resulted in many sleepless nights for Pete Hamill. Although he and the paper’s publisher failed to see eye to eye, which ultimately left the Brooklyn native out of the top spot, Hamill didn’t exactly, need the position to cement his reputation as a writer.

After a journalistic life spanning four decades, and a prolific novel-writing career to boot, Hamill admits that he cannot go three days without putting pen to paper, it makes him irritable. “Writing is so entwined with my being that I can’t imagine a life without it,” he remarked in his 1995 introduction to Piecework, a collection his journalism.

Hamill’s most recent novel Snow in August, returned to familiar themes for the bestselling author — baseball, Brooklyn, and teenage insecurities. The talc of an unlikely and unpopular friendship between a Jewish rabbi and a young Irish Catholic boy, the book spent months on the New York Times bestseller list.

He has also had critical success with his previous novels, including Loving Women and The Deadly Piece, as well as with two short story collections, two journalism collections, and his poignant memoir, A Drinking Life.

Gary Horan

Health Care

Gary Horan has held the position of president and chief executive officer at Our Lady of Mercy Healthcare System since 1990 and has more than 21 years of service in the health care industry.

Prior to assuming the presidency of Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in 1990, Horan served as vice president of hospital operations at the New York University Medical Center.

He has a B.S. in economics from St. Peter’s College in New Jersey, and an MA in health care administration from George

Washington University School of Government and Business, department of health care administration.

Professional activities include serving as governor of District One of the American College of Healthcare Executives, membership of the Metropolitan Health Administrators’ Association, of which he is a past president, and serving on a number of planning, advisory, review and policy committees.

Horan has been the recipient of numerous achievement, leadership and service awards. These include our own magazine’s Business and Top 100, and the Good Scout Award of the Bronx Council Boy Scouts of America. He and his wife of 27 years, Arlene, reside in Bronxville and have three children.

Sheila Hynes

Irish Cultural Institute of Florida

Sheila Hynes runs the largest Irish organization in Florida -the Pompano Beach-based Irish Cultural Institute. Founded ten years ago, the Institute now has over 2,000 members.

Born in New York, but partly raised in Co. Cork, Hynes has always been strongly involved in Irish affairs. When her family returned to live in the U.S., they moved to Rockaway Beach, the “Irish Riviera” of New York. There, Hynes ran the annual Rockaway Irish Festival along with radio host Adrian Flannelly.

When she and her husband moved to Florida in 1978, Hynes realized there was a tremendous shortage of irish associations in the area. “Our first St. Patrick’s Day found us listening to an Italian singer perform `Danny Boy’ over and over because it was the only Irish song he knew,” she told the Palm Beach Post last year.

That set the seeds for an idea which took firm root, and in 1987 Hynes was one of several Irish who sponsored the first St. Patrick’s Day festival in Fort Lauderdale.

The Irish Cultural Institute now offers Floridians Irish language lessons, step dancing classes, history lectures and concerts. Hynes also founded and publishes the Florida Irish American Newspaper, a monthly publication which carries articles and features of Irish interest.

Don Keough

Philanthropist

A stellar career at Coca-Cola Company, from which he retired as president in 1993 after over 40 years of service, followed by his current position as chairman of New York investment banker Allen &Company, is not what prompts Don Keough’s inclusion in these pages.

Rather it is his dedication to Irish affairs and his philanthropic work that earn him a place in the Irish America Top 100. Keough is an obvious believer in sharing his business expertise — he currently serves on the boards of Coca-Cola, the Washington Post and H.J. Heinz Co. among others.

He has also served on the Irish government’s economic advisory board, and in that capacity he led several U.S. business delegations to Ireland with the aim of promoting economic development.

Keough is a devoted family man, a father of six. A graduate of Creighton University, and a navy veteran, he also has honorary degrees from Trinity College and the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife Marilyn endowed a chair of Irish studies at the home of the Fightin’ Irish in 1993.

Peter King

Congressman

Congressman Peter King (R-NY) has long been an outspoken advocate of human rights and justice for the people of Ireland, particularly Northern Ireland, which he has visited on 18 different occasions.

King was elected Grand Marshal of the 1985 New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and has been honored by numerous organizations including the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish National Caucus and the Irish Northern Aid Committee.

First elected to represent New York’s Third District in Nassau County on Long Island in 1992, King currently serves on the Committee on International Relations and is co-chairman of the Congressional Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs. He also serves on the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs.

Prior to serving in county government, King had extensive experience as a practicing attorney and civic leader. He began his political career in November 1977 by winning election to the Hempstead Town Council. He was also elected Nassau County Comptroller in 1981, and re-elected to the position in 1985 and 1989.

A graduate of St. Francis College in Brooklyn, King earned his J.D. degree at Notre Dame. He traces his Irish ancestors to Counties Limerick and Galway. King and his wife have two children.

Dennis Lehane

Author

Dennis Lehane is a Boston boy at heart, and his love for his hometown shines through the pages of his novels. Tough-talking Patrick Kenzie and street-smart Angela Gennaro are the investigative duo central to Lehane’s literary adventures, and he has built up a solid fan base since the publication of his first book, A Drink Before the War, in 1994. Sacred, the third booking in the Kenzie-Gennaro series which was released last year, was even hailed by President Clinton as his pick for vacation reading. 

Lehane, the son of Irish immigrant parents from Cork and Connemara, is currently finishing up work on his fourth book, Gone, Baby, Gone, which is scheduled for publication in August of this year. He has also written, produced and directed his first movie, Neighborhoods, a Bostonbased romantic comedy which will soon make its debut on the film festival circuit.

The youngest of four children, Lehane supported himself through the early writing years working as a limo driver. After graduating from Eckerd College, St. Petersburg with a B.A. degree, he did counseling work with the mentally handicapped, and then with physically and sexually abused children.

As part of his graduate writing program at Florida International University in Miami, Lehane taught basic composition English, and says he would like some day to teach again.

Howie Long

Sports Host

One of professional football’s most honored players, Howie Long was a member of the Los Angeles Raiders for 13 years. After retiring from football, he became, not surprisingly, a sports broadcaster, hosting “Inside Pro Football,” a national weekly sports radio show.

Long currently serves as one of the hosts of “Fox NFL Sunday,” one of the most-watched pro-game shows in America. He has also carved out quite a successful acting career for himself, having appeared in such movies as Broke, Arrow, opposite John Travolta and Christian Slater; and Firestorm.

He has also spent countless hours involved in charity work, participating in numerous celebrity golf, tennis and basketball tournaments benefiting many different charities. For many years, he has been national chairman of Athletes and Entertainers for Kids. He has also been chairman of HEART, an organization which aids battered women and children.

Raised in the Irish Charlestown section of Boston, Long credits his family for much of his success. After a published interview wrote that he came from “the slums, the ghetto,” Long said: “The people here didn’t think it was very funny. They were offended. They’re very proud people, working-class people. Irish mostly, and very close.” He and his wife and three sons now live in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Joan Lunney

Educator

Dr. Joan Guinan Lunney has dedicated more than 30 years to educating New York City’s public school children. She has been a principal of P.S. 119 in Brooklyn since 1985, and has initiated many innovative programs that have enhanced student achievement.

Recently, she developed an early literacy program at P.S. 119, based on the New Zealand model, that has become a prototype for several schools in neighboring districts. And, in collaboration with her colleague, Dr. Kathleen Cushin, Lunney designed, developed and directs a Principal’s Institute for the continued professional development of principals.

P.S. 119 has received many honors under Lunney’s leadership, such as the School Improvement Award in 1988 from the New York State Board of Regents, and a Citation for Excellence in 1992 from Borough President Howard Golden for “Excellent Educational Initiatives.”

Lunney was selected as Educator of the Year in March 1997, by the Emerald Society, Board of Education, City of New York. .She is president of the Association of Teachers of New York and was awarded its Educator of the Year Award in 1990. She is on the executive board of the Irish American Heritage and Cultural Committee, and was for eight years chairperson of the Educator’s Seminar held annually at the American Irish Historical Society. Lunney is also a member of the New York Academy of Public Education.

In May 1996, Dr. Joan Lunney received the degree of Doctor of Education from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education.

She lives in Bronxville with her husband, Bob, a lawyer. Their son, Alexander, is a freshman at Colgate University. Her mother Mary Lyne was born in Curraghan, County Kerry, and her father Michael Guinan was born in Ballycumber, County Offaly.

Gerald Lynch

College President

Gerald Lynch is now into his 22nd year as president of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the only institution of higher education in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the study of criminal justice, law enforcement, police science and public service.

During a long and distinguished career, he has established himself as a criminal justice expert of some renown, and has lectured throughout the world.

Under his guidance, a campus of John Jay College was recently established in Puerto Rico, where new members of the area’s police force are educated.

Lynch serves as chairman of a number of organizations, including the New York City Fire Safety Foundation; the Catholic Interfacial Council of New York and the City University Drug Education Committee.

Since 1996, Lynch has also served as co-chairman of the Jerry McCabe Fellowship Program, established and named for the Irish detective garda who was shot and killed during an abortive post office robbery in Co. Limerick.

Connie Mack

Senator

Senator Connie Mack was sworn into office for his second term in January 1995, after becoming the first Republican in Florida history to be re-elected to the Senate with more than 70 percent of the vote.

He previously served for six years as a congressman from South Florida, and was named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s new rising political stars. In 1994, he was named one of the 20 most popular elected officials in America by Campaigns and Elections magazine.

Mack and his wife Priscilla, both cancer survivors, have been honored for promoting the benefits of early cancer detection. Mack is co-founder of the Senate Cancer Coalition, and vice-chair of the national American Cancer Society Foundation.

In the Senate, Mack chairs a joint committee and two subcommittees dealing with economics and appropriations, banking, housing and urban affairs, and is a member of the Senate Republican Task Force on Health Care. In 1995, he accompanied President Clinton on his visit to Ireland. Mack is a descendant of Connie Mack, the legendary baseball manager.

Fr. Dan Madigan

Sacramento Food Bank Services

The second youngest of nine children who grew up in the village of Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, Dan Madigan’s future as a priest was perhaps preordained as he watched his harried mother find time to feed the hungry travelers (Ireland’s gypsies) who called at the door.

Fr. Madigan is living testament to the valuable lesson taught by his mother back then; as the founder of Sacramento Food Bank Services (SFBS) he is responsible for feeding thousands of people weekly.

The SFBS grew out of a small food locker and soup kitchen started in Del Paso Heights in the 1960s by Fr. Madigan, and its 800 volunteers now provide the disadvantaged members of the Sacramento community with 10 million dollars’ worth of services annually. Amazingly, the food agency relies on very little help from the federal, state or local government, which works in its favor, meaning that government cutbacks have little or no impact on SFBS’s finances.

Last year, Fr. Madigan and Ann Bancroft co-authored a book entitled Many Hands, Many Miracles: Building a Social Service Agency That Works, and just a casual glimpse through the chapters is enough to convince the reader of the priest’s strong ties to home. He constantly refers to his childhood in Ireland, lessons he learned from his parents, and the earn fantasies about some day traveling to America.

“When I was a youngster life was quite simple and easy going,” he writes. “When shopping, people carried handbags for groceries, tin cans for lamp oil, bottles for milk, earthenware jars for Guinness and their radio batteries for recharging. As I grew older, I saw the proliferation of paper goods, cardboard boxes, styrofoam cups and plastic containers descend upon us with the vengeance of an avalanche. However today, and thank God for it, I am seeing the return of a philosophy of reducing, reusing and recycling.”

As well as food provision and recycling services, the SFBS offers free clothes weekly, one-on-one reading and English classes, a mother-baby program which provides formula and diapers, and a family living center which provides training in everyday living skills to families.

Sr. Kathleen Maire

Bushwick Parents Organization

A tireless advocate of social justice, Sr. Kathy Maire is no stranger to the pick and shovel work of trying to change the world. As the leader of the Bushwick Parents Organization, she is regarded by New York education writers as an outstanding analyst of the city’s public school system, and a leading advocate for reforms.

Two years ago, due to her efforts, the city stopped automatically funneling children with Hispanic surnames into a bankrupt system of bilingual education hated by many Latino parents and immigrants. Armed with dense research reports, St. Maire has identified scores of “educational dead zones” and has pressed the city for change.

She was a vital player in the founding of two alternative high schools in Brooklyn that have brought relief to students and parents from the grim sentences of the factory-style school that are proven failures.

A Franciscan Sister of Allegany, New York, who traces her roots back to Co. Cavan, St. Maire previously worked with migrant and seasonal farmworkers in rural Delaware, in Christian-base communities in Bolivia.

Actively involved in Central American issues, she also participated with Witness for Peace in the short-term delegation which visited the southern part of Nicaragua in 1985. Her ministry has included working at the Dwelling Place, a shelter for homeless women in Manhattan and as lead organizer for East Brooklyn Congregations.

Frank McCourt

Author, Educator

After almost 18 months on the New York Times bestseller list, Angela’s Ashes is still up there in the top five, dancing around form number one down to two or three, maybe hitting on four for a spot, but then working its way back up to the first or second spot.

Across the Atlantic in Ireland, the hardcover and the paperback versions are both selling like hot cakes, consistently showing up among the top five bestsellers.

It’s the book Pete Hamill said would still be around, being read “when all of us are gone,” and he seems to have hit the nail right on the head.

In an interview with Irish America last July, McCourt said he felt his 15 minutes of fame were “about up.” Not only is that not the case, but the fame thing is likely to pick up even more steam between now and the as yet unknown publication date of McCourt’s second book, the follow-up to the one which won him the Pulitzer Prize.

It’s a book his fans have been waiting for with bated breath, but with such a hard act to follow, who can blame the author for keeping us waiting? In a 1996 interview with Irish America, when asked when his next book would appear, he teasingly said: “I had a dream about James Joyce’s birthday, February 2, 1997, but I’ll have to postpone that. Maybe St. Francis of Assisi’s birthday, October 4, 1997. Francis is my man.” Well, 1997 came and went and no sign, so maybe we should be looking at October 4, 1998…

Reviewing Angela’s Ashes for this publication in 1996, Pete Hamill memorably said: “Frank McCourt has examined his ferocious childhood, walked around it, relived it, and with skill and care and generosity of heart, has transformed it into a triumphant work of art.”

But Angela’s Ashes is more even than a work of art. It is a heartening memorial to the indomitable spirit of a scruffy little kid from the back lanes of Limerick. A kid who took all of the lemons life handed him, and turned around to serve the most satisfying lemonade imaginable, alternately sweet and tart in all the right places.

McCourt’s raw courage in committing even the most painful memories to paper spurred a whole new trend in the publishing industry as entertainment personalities and authors rushed to commit their life stories to paper.

Often copied, never equaled is perhaps the maxim most applicable to this turn of events. For as McCourt himself pointed out on the opening page of his masterpiece: “It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet again is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

There were, of course, the detractors, those who could not condemn loud enough nor disclaim fast enough. “Not the Limerick we knew,” they protested, perhaps too long and hard. “We beg to differ,” replied the McCourt brothers. For every naysayer there were a hundred, a thousand even, champions ready to defend their hero, Limerick natives included, who said not only had McCourt given a truthful account of events, but that he had been too kind.

According to Limerick bookseller David O’Mahony, Angela’s Ashes has been the biggest-selling title “of all time” at O’Mahony’s book store. And O’Mahony is quick to point out that such phenomenal sales are ample evidence that there has not been much hostility towards Angela’s Ashes or Frank McCourt in Limerick.

Although McCourt’s mother Angela, father Malachy and younger siblings undoubtedly provided the literary fuel which eventually fed the tale of Angela’s Ashes, it was a newer member of his family who finally opened the floodgates which brought forth the manuscript. Wife Ellen Frey, a New York publicist whom Frank married in 1995, was amazed to see her new husband put pen to paper on the first morning of the couple’s honeymoon in Pennsylvania. “Here was I thinking I was getting married to a recently-retired high school teacher,” she recalled, “and suddenly he’s an author.” McCourt has one daughter from an earlier marriage, and a granddaughter.

So what’s next? A film version of Angela’s Ashes is in the works which will, no doubt, serve to send the book shooting back up the bestseller lists, and McCourt is still scribbling away, putting the final touches, one hopes, to a sequel.

Film makers from Paramount Pictures are due in Limerick any day now to scout locations for the upcoming shooting. Frank’s brother Malachy told the Limerick Leader recently that depending on the availability of suitable locations, Paramount had already made the decision to do as much shooting as possible in Limerick.

Said Malachy: “Frank requested that this be done and he has also insisted that as many Irish and local actors and actresses be considered for parts in the film.” 

For one great book, and the hope of many more to come, Irish America magazine is proud to hail Frank McCourt, writer extraordinaire, as our 1998 Irish American of the Year.

Mike McAlary

Writer

1997 was the year in which all of New York was shocked and sickened at one of the worst stories of alleged police brutality ever to become public. Mike McAlary was the New York Daily News reporter who broke the story, literally leaving his own cancer bed to rush to the hospital bedside of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima who was savagely brutalized while in police custody.

McAlary’s scoop earned him a second nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, and his story was read by millions, becoming the hot topic of discussion for days in New York City and its outer boroughs.

Born in Hawaii, McAlary lived in Brooklyn until third grade, when his family moved to New Hampshire. He studied magazine journalism at the Newhouse School of Syracuse University and his first writing job was with the Boston Herald.

After spells in most of the newspapers in New York City, McAlary finally settled in the Daily News, where he has been a reporter since 1988. That was also the year in which he wrote his first book, the best-seller Buddy Boys. Another two non-fiction books followed, Cop Shot in 1992 and Good Cop, Bad Cop in 1994.

McAlary was also the author of Cop-land, on which the 1997 hit movie starring Sylvester Stallone and Harvey Keitel was based. It wasn’t his first piece of writing which transferred onto the screen, McAlary penned NY News, an unfortunately shortlived television series, and he is currently working on a second series. To round off his resumé, his first novel Sore Loser is due in October. McAlary’s ancestors came from Co. Donegal.

Colum McCann

Publisher

Both his first novel Songdogs and his book of short stories Fishing the Sloe-Black River featured tales of Ireland, but Colum McCann’s newest work, This Side of Brightness, is a remarkable departure from all things Irish. It is set in the depths of Manhattan’s subway and features the men who carved out the tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Born in Dublin, and resident in New York, McCann is already a writer of some note, and his previous two books were critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic.

His stories have been described as “exceptionally crafted,” “powerful,” and “near-perfect.” And This Side of Brightness, which was released in Ireland in January but will not make its U.S. appearance until April, was called “his best writing” by one critic.

McCann described his new novel as “non-Irish” in an interview earlier this year with The Irish Times, but added: “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. And I will write an Irish book. I would like to write one.”

Married to Allison with a baby daughter Isabella, McCann thanks his father Sean, a journalist, for his entré into the wonderful world of words, and his brief career in journalism for his ability to know “when to talk and when to listen.”

Patrick McCarthy

Publisher

After a 20-year journalism career with Fairchild Publications, Patrick McCarthy’s dedication finally paid off last spring when he was named chairman and editorial director of the company, and publisher of its two hot properties, Women’s Wear Daily and W, publications which keep an ever-present figure on the fashion pulse.

McCarthy succeeded the legendary John Fairchild to the top spot at Fairchild Publications, in a handing-over of the reins his mentor described as obvious. “Patrick understands [fashion], and he lives it,” said Fairchild. “It’s his life, and it’s sensational to find somebody like that.”

Raised in the Dedham and Wellesley suburbs of Boston, McCarthy studied history at Boston University in the early 1970s, and later studied journalism at Stanford University.

His first job at Fairchild Publications was as a reporter in the organization’s Washington, D.C. bureau. Stints in Paris followed, as bureau chief of W and WWD, and in 1983, McCarthy was appointed European editor. The Council of Fashion Designers of America named McCarthy as the 1994 recipient of the Eugenia Sheppard Award for Fashion Journalism.

Matthew McConaughey

Actor

Perhaps Matthew McConaughey’s life philosophy could be summed up in the three words that make up the name of his production company, j.k. livin’, for “just keep livin.”

And the Texas native certainly seems to enjoy life and the many challenges it throws him. In just five years, he has risen from a bit part in a teen movie, Dazed and Confused, to the male lead in such hits as A Time to Kill, Contact and Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

His production company is also lining up vehicles for their rising star, upcoming projects include South Beach, Johnny Diamond and Last Flight of the Raven.

McConaughey’s latest project was the critically acclaimed Steven Spielberg epic, Amistad, opposite Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins and Nigel Hawthorne.

Malachy McCourt

Actor/Author

The more ebullient of the McCourt brothers, Malachy long ago made a name for himself as a stage, television and movie actor, and previously as a New York bar owner. But in June, when his memoirs, entitled A Monk Swimming, are released, McCourt will join his older brother Frank in the ranks of author.

There are bound to be comparisons drawn between Angela’s Ashes and A Monk Swimming, but readers would be well-advised to take the younger McCourt on his own terms. And whether or not he gets a Pulitzer Prize, his tale is sure to entertain.

McCourt has spent more than 30 years as a character actor in movies such as Devil’s Own, She’s the One, Bonfire of the Vanities, Green Card and The Field. He also played a recurring role in the ABC miniseries One Life to Live and starred in such well-known stage plays as Da, The Playboy of the Western World, Translations and Waiting for Godot.

As an entertainer, McCourt’s skills are legendary, and he most recently starred in an Irish production of A Couple of Blaguards, an Off-Broadway show he co-wrote and starred in with brother Frank. At one time, he also had his own radio show on WMCA, and even his own television show on WWOR-TV.

Married to Diana, whom he calls his “best friend,” McCourt has five children and three grandchildren.

Alice McDermott

Author

It took until her third book before Brooklyn-born Alice McDermott introduced her Irish roots into the equation and At Weddings and Wakes, which she referred to as her “Irish novel,” became a New York Times bestseller.

Her latest book, Charming Billy, should easily accomplish at least the same. The wonderfully written tale of lost love and wasted lives is full of poignant scenes, and the characters do not so much inhabit the pages as they jump out and hit the reader between the eyes. Centered around the sad story of Billy, who lost the only girl he ever loved and turned to the bottle as a source of solace, the novel makes no judgment, but leaves the reader to study the characters and decide for him or herself whether they are more deserving of pity or scorn.

McDermott’s grandparents were from Counties Donegal, Kerry and Cork, and the author says of her upbringing: “We may be raised American but there are things in our nature that clearly are Irish, the mournfulness, the surprised joy.”

The recipient of a Giles Whiting Foundation Award, McDermott teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and their three children.

Dylan McDermott

Actor

Not many actors are brave enough to eschew the lure of the big screen, once sampled, for what has long been considered the less artistically challenging haven of television drama.

But for Dylan McDermott, the risk is paying off and he is thoroughly enjoying his collaboration with producer David Kelley on ABC’s “The Practice.” McDermott plays attorney Bobby Donnell on the show, described by TV Guide as “the show you should be watching.”

He has also racked up an impressive list of film credits, including Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster; the John Hughes 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street; and In the Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood. 

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, McDermott lost his mother at the age of five and was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Frequent trips to his father in New York followed, and as McDermott grew older, his fledgling acting talent was spotted by his screenwriter stepmother, who encouraged him to take theater seriously.

McDermott earned his drama degree at Fordham University and then joined the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where he studied under acting legend Sanford Meisner. He currently lives in New York and Los Angeles with his wife and baby daughter. His great-grandparents hailed from Co. Cork. 

Eileen McNamara

Columnist

Despite years studying Irish step dancing, Eileen McNamara never won any awards, she says, because she smiled too much. All’s changed now, and smiling is absolutely encouraged, but it’s doubtful that McNamara would seriously consider an offer even from the Lord of the Dance himself to join him on stage.

That’s because she won a far bigger award last year — a Pulitzer Prize for a selection of her 1996 columns in The Boston Globe. A reporter for over 20 years, McNamara was installed as a columnist just 18 months before winning the prestigious award. Her columns have won her much acclaim, focusing on such topics as battered women, juvenile killers and infant mortality. As well as winning the Pulitzer, McNamara also took home the 1997 American Society of Newspaper Editors award for writing, and she was previously awarded a citation by the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation for her commitment to the disadvantaged.

Her first book, Breakdown, a non-fiction examination of the malpractice case against Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayog, was also published last year, to positive reviews from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. When she’s not writing or spending time with her husband and three children, McNamara teaches a course on media and public policy in the journalism program at Brandeis University.

McNamara’s grandparents were Irish, mother’s family from Malinhead, Donegal and father’s folks from Ennistymon, Co. Clare. Asked about the Irish influence on her career success, she replied: “Is there an Irishman alive who doesn’t have a love affair with words?”

Editor’s Note: This list was originally published in the July/August 1998 issue of Irish America. ⬥