Hall of Fame: NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill
“Jimmy’s not just a cop’s cop. He’s a New Yorker’s New Yorker.” When it comes to James O’Neill, New York City’s 43rd and current police commissioner, those words by Chirlane McCray, the wife of N.Y.C. Mayor Bill de Blasio, could not be more spot-on. A more fitting NYPD commissioner couldn’t be found in Central Casting. He is a steadfast New Yorker who started his career guarding...
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Hall of Fame:
Lawyer, Public Servant, and Peacemaker John C. Dearie
John Dearie may not remember the specific year, but he remembers a very small, very important detail about one New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade in the late 1980s. “I remember seeing all of these people march ing by, county after county. It had to be tens of thousands of men and women marching by. And they were all wearing this ribbon.” Dearie – a longtime New York state lawmaker and...
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Hall of Fame:
Broadcaster Adrian Flannelly
He’s been praised by the New York Daily News as the “Dean of Irish Radio in the United States,” by New York Newsday as “a promoter of incredible charm and energy,” by The Irish Times as “an entertainer, lobbyist, and an entrepreneur,” and by The New York Times as “an avuncular host.” He is Adrian Flannelly, host of his own radio show, which is broadcast internationally...
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Hall of Fame: Academy Award-Winning Director
Terry George
There is a thread that links each of Terry George’s films, and it comes directly from his life. “I’m talking about ordinary people struggling against oppression,” he tells Irish America. “That’s always been my kind of guiding light.” Whether it’s the true-to-life tale of the late Gerry Conlon (the Belfast man who spent 15 years in an English prison having been wrongly accused) in...
MoreHall of Fame: Irish Repertory Theatre Founders Charlotte Moore & Ciarán O’Reilly
The year is 1980. A former movie actor, Ronald Reagan, whose great-grandfather was an emigrant from the village of Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, is the newly-elected, 40th president of the United States. That same year another emigrant, Ciarán O’Reilly from County Cavan, was performing in an off-Broadway play called Summer by the Irish writer Hugh Leonard, where he met an actress,...
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