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Top 100 Irish America's Finest in Dance • Music • Acting
 The
Irish have had a long history in the entertainment business, from the
days when actors Errol Flynn and James Cagney graced the silver screen,
Gene Kelly danced his way into hearts, and crooner Bing Crosby brought
joy to millions with his heavenly voice. So too, our Top 100 honorees,
dancers, musicians, stars of stage and screen, light up our lives with
their particular talent.
They have made us laugh, cry, sit spellbound in our seats, and gasp in
awe at their enormous talent.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis’s intense portrayal of Daniel Plainview in There
Will Be Blood has had critics and fans purring with admiration –
and on February 24 brought him an Academy Award for best actor. The level
of intensity, talent, and willingness to absorb every fiber of the character
he plays sets the English-born Irish citizen apart from any other actor
working today.
But this commitment and enormous energy Day-Lewis embodies is of no
shock to those who follow his career. (In fact, the all-encompassing passion
he brings to his craft may explain why he works so infrequently). From
My Beautiful Laundrette to his other Oscar-winning turn as Christy Brown
in My Left Foot, the son of Irish-born British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis
has turned in consistently superior performances.
And then there is his love affair with Ireland, which far outweighs the
several Irish-themed movies he has made. Day-Lewis has held an Irish passport
since 1993 and lives in County Wicklow with his wife Rebecca Miller and
sons Ronan and Cashel (the actor also has a son, Gabriel, with actress
Isabelle Adjani). He was once quoted as saying, “From the day we
arrived here, my sense of Ireland’s importance has never diminished.
Everything here seemed exotic to us. Just the sound of the west of Ireland
in a person’s voice can affect me deeply.” With Oscar, Golden
Globe and BAFTA awards in the bag for his role in There Will Be Blood,
another great part surely beckons. – DOK
 Des
Bishop
Incredibly popular in Ireland and with a growing profile stateside, comedian
Des Bishop is a man on a mission – to make you laugh. New York-born
and reared until he turned 14 and was shipped off to an Irish boarding
school by his Irish parents, Bishop has forged a successful comedic career
out of being an American transplanted to the auld sod, mining laughs from
all the foibles and eccentricities he’s encountered while living
there.
Bishop began his career at The International Comedy Club in Dublin where
he quickly made a name for himself. The 30-something’s career really
took off with the 2004 TV show The Des Bishop Work Experience, where he
spent a month working minimum-wage jobs around Ireland.
A regular on Irish chat shows, Bishop’s latest project is called
In Name of the Fada – which chronicles the comedian’s year
spent living in the Gaeltacht and learning the Irish language. Bishop
recently conducted some interviews in Irish in New York, where he did
a fundraising gig for the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. Smart, ambitious,
and seriously funny, let’s hope this prodigal son will return to
these shores soon.
 The
Downeys, Robert Sr. and Robert Jr.
Hollywood loves a family act, and the father-son team of Robert Downey
Sr. and Robert Downey Jr. have delivered when it comes to perseverance
and creativity in the business.
Robert Downey Sr. was born to an Irish-American mother, famous cover-girl
Betty McLoughlin (pictured below), and a Jewish father. Before becoming
a successful filmmaker Downey Sr. served in the army (he changed his name
upon enlisting from Robert Elias to Robert Downey after his stepfather.)
Once discharged, he joined the minor leagues and pitched against the then-unknown
Yogi Berra and struck him out. By 23, he was producing films.
In the 1960s, Downey Sr. released a string of independent low-budget
absurdist films that gained an underground following. With his 1969 release
of Putney Swope, Downey achieved mainstream success – the film was
ranked in 1969’s Top 10 films by New York magazine. His 1970 release,
Pound, included his son, Robert Downey Jr.’s, first film appearance.
It may seem easy to make it in Hollywood when your father is a filmmaker
and you’ve been onscreen since age five. But Robert Downey Jr.’s
trip to the top of the Hollywood hill was long and arduous, and he fought
for every bit of fame he has won. After his debut as a youngster, Downey
Jr. joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for one season in 1985 and
then went on to appear in Hollywood films. He became a break-through star
in 1987 with The Pick-up Artist in which he played opposite brat-packer
Molly Ringwald, and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 1992
for his performance in Chaplin.
He also became a hit on the television show Ally McBeal, for which he
won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Today,
Downey Jr., who is married to Susan Levin Downey, continues to act, appearing
in films such as Gothika and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; he gave especially
memorable performances in Wonder Boys and Good Night, and Good Luck.
This May, Iron Man, based on the hit comic book series of the same name,
will be Downey Jr.’s biggest budgeted movie to date. Always looking
for new ways to perform, Downey Jr. (whose mother Elsie Ford was a singer
and dancer) revealed his singing talent on Ally McBeal and in 2005 released
The Futurist which featured eight of his own pop-ballads and “Smile,”
a Charlie Chaplin composition.
Robert Downey Sr., who is married to Irish-American writer Rosemary Rogers,
has also continued his film career, with films such as Up the Academy,
America, Rented Lips, and Hugo Pool. He is currently working on a documentary
about the music of Kurt Weill, which features Fiona Apple and her sister,
Maude Maggart, and is also doing a remake of Putney Swope in which Downey
Jr. appears. We can only hope that Jr. will be willing to play a puppy
again in a remake of Pound.
 John
Doyle
Born in 1971 in Dublin to a family of musicians and singers, John Doyle
was surrounded by traditional music from his earliest years. His father
Sean is a remarkable singer and collector of songs, with a vast repertoire
of traditional ballads committed to memory. Tommy Doyle, John’s
County Sligo grandfather, taught him his first instrumental tunes. Two
of his three brothers are musicians, as are various uncles, cousins, and
other family members.
John was playing professionally by the age of 16, and soon moved to
New York City where he began playing with Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan.
He first rose to international prominence with Solas (Gaelic for “light”),
the all-star Irish/American band whose emergence heralded the arrival
of a new generation of bold, inventive traditional musicians.
The mighty original Solas lineup of Doyle (whose guitar playing was both
the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the band’s relentlessly
high-energy sound), John Williams (accordion), Winifred Horan (fiddle),
Karan Casey (vocals), and Seamus Egan (banjo, flutes, pipes) recorded
four immensely influential albums before Doyle left the group to seek
a solo career. His latest album, Wayward Son, Doyle’s second solo
release on Compass Records, showcases the guitarist’s genius for
arrangement. Now an accomplished producer as well, Doyle has worked with
such artists as Liz Carroll and Heidi Talbot.
Doyle, who currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife
Cathy Peterson, continues to innovate, finding the seeds of his contemporary
approach within the tradition itself. – PH
 Suzanne
Farrell
egendary ballerina Suzanne Farrell retired from the stage in 1989 but
her recent work with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet company marks an achievement
in the male-dominated world of ballet direction and choreography.
Farrell joined George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet in the
fall of 1961. Her grace and flair for drama quickly made her Balanchine's
“inspiring angel.” She went on to become an icon for the era
and is often proclaimed to be one of the greatest dancers of the century.
In 1990 Farrell wrote an autobiography titled Holding On to Air. She
has honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame and Georgetown University.
Farrell is also the recipient of a National Medal of the Arts (2003),
the Nijinsky Award (Monaco Dance Forum 2004), a 2005 recipient of the
Kennedy Center Honors and the Kennedy Center’s Capezio Dance Award
(2005). In 2004 she was featured in the documentary Balanchine.
In July 2007, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet returned to the Kennedy Center,
and received rave reviews, with two programs that included Divertimento
Brillante (Glinka) and Concierto de Mozart (Balanchine), newly restaged
works that had not been seen in 40 years.
 Will
Ferrell
Not only is Will Ferrell the King of Comedy but he is also a fiercely
proud Irishman! The students of University College Dublin (UCD) got a
special treat on January 22 when its Literary and Historical Society honored
Ferrell with the James Joyce Award for his outstanding contribution to
comedic acting. Arriving in full Irish rugby kit and black slip-ons, Ferrell
was greeted with overwhelming fanfare and laughter.
Ferrell, famous for his work on Saturday Night Live and in movies such
as Elf and Anchorman, spoke for 40 minutes to an audience of 1,200 students.
“As I look out at the crowd, I see the future of Ireland, the future
of Europe. And let’s face it – the future looks pretty bleak,”
he commented.
Ferrell also mentioned his new devotion to Ireland, telling the audience,
“I’m so committed to my Irish roots that I intend to continue
wearing this outfit upon my return to the U.S. I will also continue to
drive on the left-hand side of the road.”
The actor/comedian had been on vacation in Ireland with his brother,
Patrick, and his father, Roylee. Although they traveled all around the
country, the Ferrells spent most of their time in Co. Longford retracing
their family roots.
When asked about the experience, Roylee Ferrell said, “We had a
great time. You know, when our folks came over [to the U.S.] they didn’t
know how to spell so they spelled it F-E-R-R-E-L-L and most everybody
there spells it F-A-R-R-E-L-L. So everybody in Longford who had that last
name came to see us, I think.”
Ferrell, who is currently on the big screen in Semi-Pro, has another screwball
comedy, Stepbrothers, in which he stars with fellow Irish-American John
C. Reilly, coming out in the summer.
 Fionnula
Flanagan
Fionnula Flanagan who has given critically acclaimed performances in
such movies as Waking Ned Devine, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood,
and Transamerica, in which she played the estranged mother of a pre-op
transgender man played by Felicity Huffman, has had another busy year
on and off the screen. Highlights included a guest starring role in the
critically acclaimed ABC series Lost, where she played one of “The
Others.” She also reprised her role as Rose, matriarch of the Caffee
family, in the second season of Showtime’s Irish-American drama
Brotherhood.
The actress, who was brought up in Dublin speaking both Irish and English,
had her breakthrough in Ireland in 1965 with an Irish-speaking role in
An Triail. Not one to let her Irish language skills grow rusty, Flanagan,
last year, starred in the Irish language series, Paddywhackery, playing
the ghost of Peig Sayers (the iconic Irish-speaking storyteller) who visits
a young man trying to open several Gaelic-speaking business ventures to
avail of language grants from the government.
Off-screen, Flanagan continues to support the plight of the undocumented
Irish in America. So strong is her commitment that Flanagan pulled out
of the US-Ireland Alliance pre-Oscar party, due to comments made by the
organization’s president, Trina Vargo, who suggested that a special
deal for Irish illegals amounted to “putting lipstick on a pig.”
Speaking to Irish America, the actress made it clear that she supports
fair and reasonable immigration reform for all immigrants, not just the
Irish.
Flanagan, who will receive an honorary degree from University College,
Galway later this year, also starred in Some Mother’s Son, a movie
about the 1981 Hunger Strike. She has been outspoken about the need for
peace with justice in Northern Ireland for many years, and was the first
of the Hollywood elite to welcome Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams
to Los Angeles. Flanagan is married to Dr. Garrett O’Connor, who
is the medical director of the Professional Recovery Program at the Betty
Ford Center.
 Brian
Mulligan
hen Brian Mulligan first started singing in high school musicals in his
hometown of Endicott, New York, his Irish parents thought it was just
a phase. The high school honor student also saw singing as a hobby but
it turned out to be a valuable asset when it came time to earn the money
for college.
Now, ten years later, Mulligan is a member of the Metropolitian Opera,
where he has received praise from Opera News for his “velvety, evenly
and effortly produced baritone and nuance-rich phrasing.” Most recently
he appeared as Marcello in the Met’s production of Puccini’s
La Boheme.
Brian, whose parents are from County Leitrim, attributes his musical
versatility to his growing up in a typical Irish family where music is
handed on from generation to generation. In a recent interview he told
Cahir O’Doherty of the Irish Voice that he would revel in the opportunity
to sing sentimental Irish songs like “Danny Boy.”
“I may sing at the Met but I’m an Irish-American.
These songs are my heritage too.”
 The
Dropkick Murphys
In 1995 a group of friends in South Boston looking to play music for
fun started practicing in the basement of a friend’s barbershop
with a goal of combining the punk rock, Irish folk, rock and hardcore
influences they had grown up with. From out of these sessions the Dropkick
Murphys were formed.
The group has come a long way since then: in 2004 their version of the
Boston Red Sox’s anthem became the theme song to the Sox’s
World Series run, and in 2006 their music was featured in the Martin Scorsese
film The Departed. Building a name for themselves by touring nonstop around
the world, the Dropkick’s sell-out St. Patrick’s Day weekend
shows in Boston are now the stuff of legend.
The Dropkick’s first full-length album Do or Die was released in
1998 and the group has had numerous albums since then. 2007 saw the issue
of Dropkick Murphy’s sixth album and first major label debut The
Meanest of Times.
The band is in the midst of a tour that started on January 31 in Dublin
and will play dates all over Europe and the States before culminating
with a gig in Perth, Australia on May 31.
In 2008, Marc Orrell announced that he is leaving the band and that Tim
Brennan will replace him as full-time guitarist. Despite these changes
there are sure to be great things ahead for the Dropkick Murphys and many
more Irish-American rock anthems to come.
 Jack
O’Brien
From Shakespeare, to musical comedy, to opera – Jack O’Brien
is as versatile in his career as he is as a director. But these days,
he is known around New York City for directing two trilogies at Lincoln
Center, back to back.
O’Brien spent the fall of 2006 and winter and spring of 2007 at
Lincoln Center.
First, he directed Tom Stoppard’s trilogy of plays The Coast of
Utopia for Lincoln Center Theater, and then Giacomo Puccini’s trilogy
of operas Il Trittico for the Metropolitan Opera.
He received a Tony Award for The Coast of Utopia, which he can add to
a very long list of awards and nominations including eight Best Direction
Tony Awards.
Next on the plate for O’Brien, who recently left his post as Artistic
Director of San Diego’s Old Globe Theater after 26 years, is converting
the screenplay Catch Me If You Can into a musical comedy with songs by
Marc Saiman and Scott Wittman of Hairspray fame.
O’Brien, whose Irish roots lie in County Tipperary, was born in
Saginaw, Michigan.
 Rosie
O’Donnell
Rosie O’Donnell’s second memoir, Celebrity Detox: The Fame
Game was released in 2007. In the book, Rosie equates fame to drug addiction
and discusses her departure from The View. The book debuted at #5 on the
New York Times bestselling list.
The New Yorker from Bayside, Queens, whose dad was born in Belfast, lost
her Irish-American mother to breast cancer when she was 11 years old,
after which her father took Rosie and her four siblings to Northern Ireland
to live for a time.
Rosie began her career in comedy clubs in New York, and had her first
TV break in 1984 on Star Search. From there it was on to movies such as
A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle.
In 1996, Rosie landed her own television show, The Rosie O’Donnell
Show, which was a huge hit. She left the show in 2002, and after a brief
stint in the magazine publishing world, returned to The View in 2006 –
where she had a famous run-in with Donald Trump before leaving the show.
Rosie, married her partner Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco in 2004, the
couple are parents to four children and one foster child.
 Kelli
O’Hara
Considered one of Broadway’s brightest ingénues, singer
and actress Kelli O’Hara has been nominated for two Tony Awards,
for her performance as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza and as
Babe Williams in The Pajama Game, in which she starred alongside the likes
of Harry Connick Jr. and Michael McKean.
A native of Oklahoma, Kelli graduated from Oklahoma City University with
a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance/ opera. After winning the state
Metropolitan Opera Competition, O’Hara made the big move to New
York City, enrolling in the Lee Strasberg Institute.
An appearance in Jekyll and Hyde marked Kelli’s Broadway debut,
quickly followed by roles in Sondheim’s Follies, Sweet Smell of
Success and Dracula. Most recently, Kelli has just finished taping two
pilots for NBC’s Blue Blood and All Rise. She also played Dot/Marie
in the Los Angeles reprise of Sunday in the Park with George.
O’Hara will also appear in Industrial for Cava Freixenet directed
by Martin Scorsese. Kelli’s New York fans can look forward to her
return to Lincoln Center this spring when she will star as Nellie Forbush
in South Pacific.
O’Hara resides in New York with her husband, Greg.
 J.J.
Sheridan
Sheridan is one of Ireland’s leading pianists and composers, whose
many albums include The Art of Turlough O’Carolan, in which the
famous airs and laments of the blind Irish harpist and composer are presented
in magnificent new piano arrangements.
The son of professional musicians, J.J. began studying the piano at age
5, and in his late teens was accepted on scholarship to the Royal Irish
Academy of Music in Dublin.
At 18 he composed “Saint Canice’s Mass” which brought
him national attention. One year later he won the Esposito Medal at Dublin’s
Feis Ceoil (Ireland’s premier piano competition).
J.J., whose many albums include Irish Piano Classics, The Andrew Lloyd
Webber Piano Album, and An Irish Piano Christmas, has appeared in Carnegie
Hall and Boston Symphony Hall. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia,
and performs his one man show, “The Art of Turlough O’Carolan,”
at various venues throughout the world.
 Saoirse
Ronan
New York-born Irish teenage actor and Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is
a lady with her head set squarely on her talented shoulders. “Hollywood
is okay, but I wouldn’t want to live there. As I said to my Mam,
I might buy a house there for my work but that’s it.
Maybe it’s because I’m Irish, but I’d much prefer to
live in Carlow rather than in Los Angeles. I’m sure it’s a
very nice place, but my home’s better,” she recently told
Cahir O’Doherty of the Irish Voice. But after an amazingly creepy
performance as Briony in Atonement, the Motion Picture Academy has recognized
her talent and she is now an actress in demand in Tinseltown.
Currently in New Zealand filming The Lovely Bones with director Peter
Jackson, Saoirse is about to wrap her sixth movie in just two years. Her
father Paul (pictured above with Saoirse) is a well-known actor in Ireland
and the family spent the early part of Saoirse’s life (Saoirse is
Gaelic for Freedom) in the Big Apple while Paul pursued his career. Now
the family calls Carlow home, not that Saoirse has seen much if it lately!
“Unless something really special like Atonement comes up, I’m
going back to school in Carlow for a while now. I mean, I’m after
starting high school and I haven’t even been there yet! I can’t
wait to get back,” Saoirse revealed. No ordinary schoolgirl.
 KT
Sullivan
Named Kathleen after her father’s favorite Irish tune, “I’ll
Take You Home Again Kathleen,” the cabaret singer and Broadway star
decided to go by “KT” to distinguish herself from countless
other Katys.
A winner of an MAC Award for best review, KT has starred in many Broadway
and Off-Broadway roles. Sullivan’s most recent cabaret show titled
Autumn in New York marked her 10th solo appearance at the Oak Room of
the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. The show received a rave review in The
New York Times which called KT “a sexy, wide-eyed comedian with
a semi-operatic voice” who turns the journey from Oklahoma to Broadway
into “a thrill ride.”
KT’s great-great-grandfather came over from County Kerry during
the famine, emigrating first to Boston, then to Birmingham, Alabama. On
her grandmother’s side, the Corbetts hailed from County Cork. KT
stays true to her Irish roots not only by performing St. Patrick’s
Day shows and including Irish songs in her repertoire but in her personal
life as well. The chanteuse is married to former Yeats Society president
and prominent Irish-American Stephen Downey.
 Molly
Shannon
Molly Shannon’s performance in last year’s Independent movie
Year of the Dog showed that the comedian who built a career out of the
“crazy” characters she developed during her time on Saturday
Night Live has depth and range as an actress. As an unmarried office worker
who becomes unhinged when her pet beagle Pencil is poisoned (accidently
by J.C. Reilly), she is as touchingly strange and totally believable as
her slow dissolve is played out on the big screen.
Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Molly was raised by an Irish-American
father who encouraged her comedic leanings. (Tragically, her mother, younger
sister and cousin died in a car accident when Molly was four.)
Following small roles in Twin Peaks and In Living Color, Molly made a
breakthrough in 1995, when she landed on Saturday Night Live. She went
on to appear in films such as Never Been Kissed, Analyze This, and American
Splendor, and on television in series such as Will and Grace, and recently,
Pushing Daisies.
Molly, who received her BFA from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School
for the Arts, is married to artist Fritz Chesnut. They have two children,
Stella and Nolan. Watch for Molly in the upcoming NBC project Kath and
Kim a series that focuses on the relationship between a mother and daughter.
 Ciaran
Sheehan
iaran Sheehan certainly knows how to bring a crowd to their feet. The
Broadway actor and singer has
headlined sold-out Carnegie Hall shows three times in the last two years.
Born in Dublin, Ciaran moved to New York to study acting with Kathryn
Gately and Bobby Lewis. Since then he has appeared on Broadway playing
leading roles in Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, and on television
in Law and Order, One Life to Live and Late Night with David Letterman.
Never one to stray too far from his Irish roots, Ciaran has also appeared
in two PBS specials, From Galway to Broadway and Frank McCourt’s
The Irish and How They Got That Way. He has also starred in shows at the
Irish Repertory Theater in New York.
Phantom of the Opera is considered by many Sheeran’s breakthrough
role. It garnered him critical acclaim: “Sheehan has the kind of
soaring stage voice from which indelible Broadway moments are made,”
The New York Times said of his starring role – he made over 1,000
appearances as The Phantom and collected a large fan base along the way.
He also graced the New York stage and regional theaters around the country
in the musical The Molly Maguires which portrays the plight of the famine
Irish who migrated to the coal fields of Pennsylvania.
Ciaran is married to New York City Ballet and Broadway star Alexia Hess.
The couple has three children – Kyle, Hennessy and Brendan.
 Trinity
Dance Company
ver twenty years ago the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance established itself
as the first and only American Irish dance team ever to bring home a gold
medal from the World Championships in Ireland. Though their success at
the World’s is still unprecedented, for a while it was beginning
to look as if Trinity would never see that kind of glory again, but the
2007 World Championships in Glasgow proved a lucky setting for Trinity
and the academy brought home a gold medal in the Junior Girls Figure Dance
choreography.
Trinity also captured two silver and one bronze medal, upping their world
title count to an extraordinary 28 titles. Among the standout solo dancers
was Jillian Oury of Downers Grove, Illinois who took home a second place
silver medal in the Girls 16-17 category.
The school’s success is thanks in large part to founder and artistic
director Mark Howard who formed Trinity when he was only 17. He started
out giving lessons in church basements and built the company into the
largest Irish dance program in the world with 21 locations throughout
Illinois and Wisconsin.
Howard borrows from Irish myth and legend to create intricate choreographies
– long before Riverdance, he was choreographing award-winning dances
that pushed the boundaries of traditional Irish dance.
In addition to appearing in films and talk shows and performing all over
the world, the Trinity dance academy has also been the subject of two
national PBS television programs and showcased in the ABC special The
Dignity of Children.
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