Movers & Shakers

“He described his role in business as being that of ‘a catalyst, putting deals together and bringing individuals into a structure where they can play out their parts’. His one guideline was ‘whatever you are doing, jump right into the middle of it and don’t hold back.’” – Oisín O’Connell on his late father, Emmett O’Connell

Welcome to the Fall 2024 issue.

There are advantages to being Irish when it comes to business. In this issue, as we honor the Irish working in the financial sector, we remember the late Emmett O’Connell – one of our earliest honorees and an investor in Irish America.

The Bronx-born son of immigrants, Emmet could talk to anyone and win over opponents with his gregariousness and good humor. Most of all, Emmett knew how to put a team together. I see those traits and the ability to “jump right into the middle of it and don’t hold back” sentiment expressed in our Wall Street honorees, who, like Emmett, also hold their Irish heritage close to their hearts.

The family tradition of hard work was inherited by Andrew McMahon, who learned early in life to support himself through high school and college, parking cars and delivering newspapers and pizza. Tom Deignan interviews McMahon, who now heads one of the largest and oldest insurance companies in the U.S., Guardian Life.  The firm was established in 1860 by immigrants wanting to insure their families. This founding principle, carried down through the generations, is to McMahon, the grandson of immigrants, “a reminder to put people at the heart of all that we do.”

Rosemary Rogers’ take on the spirited Nora Barnacle, the “muse” of James Joyce, is that, like so many Irish women who left Ireland for foreign shores – she just got on with it. Rosemary also writes on the Tuatha dé Dannan, “the tribe of Gods,” who inhabited pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

In other features, Michael Quinlin profiles rebel, writer, and journalist John Boyle O’Reilly and reveals some surprising new facts about his life and the lives of his talented wife and daughters. Roots detective Megan Smolenyak writes about Tim Walz’s Irish roots. We remember Edna O’Brien as she would want us to remember her – in her own words – with an excerpt from her memoir, Country Girl.

Interspersed with our features are Hibernia Happening, book reviews, Irish Eye on Hollywood, and other short reads. We end with our Photo Album page and Peggy Phelan’s memories of her immigrant father, Jack Moran, who ran the “Members Only” elevator in the Stock Exchange – a metaphor for the heights scaled by our honorees – today’s movers and shakers – Irish-immigrant and Irish American.   

Mórtas Cine