| Community
With passion, empathy and hope these honorees fight for causes that
may otherwise have gone unnoticed. Whether training guidance dogs for
the disabled or helping wounded soldiers, these remarkable men and women
have served the community in unforgettable ways.
 Jim Cunningham
James Patrick Cunningham’s family has been keeping the Irish flag
flying ever since they moved to Arizona when Jim was approximately six
years old, and Jim’s father started the first Irish club in the
Valley of the Sun.
Jim became president of the Irish Club when he graduated from law school,
and he was the chairman of the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in
Phoenix, some 23 years ago.
The son of Irish immigrants from County Mayo, Jim considers his Irish
heritage to be “a treasured and a joyful part of his life,”
and he is constantly looking for ways to introduce Irish culture and learning
to others in the Southwest. Five years ago, the Irish Cultural Center
in downtown Phoenix became a reality, through the hard efforts of members
of the Irish community and the City of Phoenix. Jim is proud to serve
as chairman of the board of the Irish Cultural and Learning Foundation,
the nonprofit entity that operates the Center.
Jim, who says he “considers it his good fortune to grow up in this
Southwestern state and all it has to offer,” married his high school
sweetheart Judy Hurley. They are the parents of five children and the
grandparents of thirteen, all of whom reside in the Phoenix area. He practices
law with his son, Matt. – Patricia Harty
William Flynn
 William “Bill”
Flynn is certainly not resting on his laurels since stepping down as chairman
of the insurance giant Mutual of America in 2005. Flynn who was a crucial
figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, chairing the National Committee
on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) and helping to broker the IRA ceasefire,
continues his work on that score. In 2006 the National Committee continued
to reach out to all concerned parties in the North. Both Peter Robinson,
the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader and likely successor
to the Reverend Ian Paisley, and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter
Hain addressed the Committee and invited business leaders in New York
on separate occasions. As well as his work with the NCAFP, which is dedicated
to the resolution on world conflicts that threaten the security of the
U.S., and has contributed to the debate on the Middle East, Russian and
Central Asia, Flynn is the chairman of the Flax Trust America, an organization
committed to the relief of poverty, dependency and unemployment in Northern
Ireland. He serves on numerous boards including The Alfred E. Smith Memorial
Foundation, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, and The Ireland America
Economic Advisory Board to the Taoiseach.
The recipient of such honors as Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from
the Department of the Army and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Flynn
was named to Irish America’s “Greatest Irish-Americans of
the Century” list in 1999. Also, in 1999, he served as Grand Marshal
of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City (pictured left).
He is a first-generation Irish-American with roots in counties Mayo and
Down. – Patricia Harty
 Three
of the Braves
Three Irish-American members of the FDNY took a break from their regular
jobs of protecting and saving lives of New Yorkers to save a few more
lives on their own time by donating bone marrow.
Though all three are humble and matter-of-fact about the experience, the
truth is that most of us would balk at having to undergo this painful
procedure to save our own lives, let alone someone else’s.
Captain William P. Connolly donated marrow on three different occasions
to three different recipients. Connolly, whose great-grandparents Jeremiah
Connolly and Julia Sheehan immigrated from Schull County Cork in the late
1800s, traces his involvement back to 17 years ago, when fellow Firefighter
Mark Kwalwasser asked the probationary fire class if anyone would volunteer
to donate bone marrow for his sister, Elaine, who was very ill. Sadly,
Elaine died, but Kwalwasser continues the drive for donors by addressing
the probationary class annually. Connolly reckons he gets 100 percent
participation every year.
 Connolly, and
his fellow firefighters, Bob O’Neil and Stephen Duffy were honored
at FDNY Headquarters in Brooklyn on January 19. The occasion afforded
an opportunity for Connolly, who received the Kwalwasser Award, to meet
his first recipient Nancy Johnson, and for first time donor Firefighter
Bob O’Neil to meet John Deeney from Delaware. It was O’Neil’s
marrow donation that saved Deeney, who was diagnosed with Myelogenous
Leukemia in 1999. The transplant took place on December 7, 2004, and Deeney,
after some initial problems with graft versus host disease, has fully
recovered and is now living a full life. “It was nervous meeting
him but also exciting at the same time,” O’Neil told Irish
America. And his reasons for donating? “It seemed like the right
thing to do.”
 Firefighter
Stephen Duffy, whose four grandparents were from the West of Ireland,
made the same life-saving donation to Samantha Alcazar of Guadalajara,
Mexico. Alcazar was diagnosed with Fanconi’s Anemia and needed a
transplant to survive. Duffy was a match and the rest is living history.
He met the thriving teenager and saw firsthand the difference he’d
made. “It was really impressive, I hadn’t thought of the magnitude
of it all, but when you actually meet the person you realize that you
have affected somebody’s life. It was very moving,” Duffy
said.
Captain Connolly, asked if he would do it again, said, “As long
as the doctors tell me, I will keep doing so until they say, no more.”
-Declan O’Kelly
 Loretta
Brennan Glucksman
It has been said of Loretta Brennan Glucksman that she has brought American-style
charity to Ireland and Irish culture to America. The National Chairman
of The American Ireland Fund and co-founder of Glucksman Ireland House
(the Center for Irish Studies at New York University), Loretta has also
been called “Ireland’s greatest advocate.” While both
these statements are true, they don’t describe the warmth of Loretta’s
personality, her underlying interest in the human condition, her sharp
brain and ability to get to the root of the matter, while all the time
putting people at their ease, whether they be high-level policy makers
or students who gather at Ireland House, the townhouse she and her husband
Lew Glucksman donated to New York University and which now houses its
Center for Irish Studies.
In 2006, Loretta lost Lew, her husband of 20 years, who had been by her
side in all her Irish endeavors, a Jewish New Yorker who loved Ireland,
and indeed, took Loretta on her first visit there. He will be greatly
missed in New York and Ireland, where he made his home for many years.
A third-generation Irish-American, Loretta grew up in Pennsylvania in
a totally Irish community. Her maternal grandparents, McHugh/Murray, immigrated
from Leitrim in Famine times. “They were coal-mining people, so
when they went to the United States they went to the anthracite areas
of northeastern Pennsylvania,” she says. Of her paternal grandparents,
all she knows is that they were from Donegal. They would be most proud
of their descendant. – Patricia Harty
 Shannon
Hickey
Shannon Hickey knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of an
act of kindness. Born with bilary artesia, a rare liver disease, she was
able to survive with the donation of a piece of her mother’s liver.
The transplant was blessed by Father Mychal Judge, who stayed by the family’s
side, constantly checking on baby Shannon while there was danger that
her body might reject the new liver. He remained a great friend to the
family throughout his life.
When Father Mychal died administering last rites to a firefighter at
the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, 12-year-old Shannon decided
to take on his spirit of giving. The anniversary of Shannon’s surgery
had always been like a second birthday, involving a big celebration and
gifts. For her next party, Shannon asked guests to bring socks for the
homeless instead of presents. Inspired, she sent out some e-mails and
ended up with 1,500 pairs of socks which she distributed at Ground Zero
and at the St. Francis of Assisi Church where Father Mychal had worked.
So began the nonprofit organization Mychal’s Message. Each year
Shannon chooses an anniversary project and has now delivered over 100,000
items to the homeless including fleece blankets, diapers, underwear, backpacks,
and sneakers. With each gift, Shannon encloses a card with Father Mychal’s
personal prayer: “Lord, take me where You want me to go, let me
meet who You want me to meet, tell me what You want me to say, and keep
me out of Your way.”
This year, Shannon, who now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wanted
to do something unlike anything she had ever done before. She teamed up
with the Sesame Street Live corporate offices and Giant Foods, and with
the help of fellow students at Lancaster Catholic High School raised more
than $2,500, making it possible for 400 inner city children to see Sesame
Street Live. Ten buses took the four and five-year-olds to the Hershey
Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, where they received candy bars and other
gifts from Bishop Kevin Rhoades. Asked how she does it all, Shannon replied,
“When I started, I thought about the people I would help but I didn’t
realize how much I would get back. The rewards are amazing. I feel like
I have been given my life for a reason and I am so grateful to have the
ability to help others.”– Michelle Harty
 Don Keenan
Growing up in Morehead City, North Carolina, Don Keenan had daily reminders
of the discrimination that his Irish great-grandparents faced. His grandfather
J. Don had a stack of anti-Irish signs that had hung on businesses in
the Morehead City area.
J. Don, who had taken care of Keenan since age two when his father died,
wanted to remind his grandson of what his ancestors had gone through.
His influence became the bedrock of Keenan’s life.
The young Keenan grew up to be a brilliant trial lawyer. The youngest
member ever inducted into the Inner Circle of Advocates (at the age of
thirty-two), his honors are too numerous to list, but they include the
Chief Justice Award for civility and professionalism, the highest award
possible for a lawyer in Georgia. He was named Trial Lawyer of the Year
on two occasions, and one of the best medical negligence lawyers in the
United States by the National Law Journal.
Throughout his career, Keenan’s grandfather’s message that
the good life came at a cost, stayed with him. “It made me a fighter
all my life,” he told Irish America. “I was never going to
forget what people, black, Irish, Asian, whoever, went through to make
it in America.”
As he built his career, Keenan became increasingly aware of children who
were lost in the legal system, and so in 1993 he formed the Atlanta-based
Keenan’s Kids Foundation to assist and advise children both directly
and through the training of law students and lawyers so they are more
aware of the needs of children at-risk in the legal system.
Keenan is now the most successful children’s advocate lawyer in
America and a regular guest on such shows as 60 Minutes and Oprah, who
gave him her “People Who Have Courage” award a few years back.
This past September, in another nod to his grandfather, Keenan became
the driving force behind the first annual “Stars of the South”
dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta, which, together with this
magazine, honors noteworthy Irish-Americans in the Southern United States.
– Patricia Harty
 Don Keough
The son of a farmer and cattleman, Donald Keough was born in a small
town in Iowa. When the Depression hit, Keough’s father lost most
of his money in the cattle market. With a large mortgage on the farm property,
the house accidentally burned down. The family had to move to Sioux City,
where Keough’s father struggled to start over again. Of this time,
Keough says, “It must have been devastating for him, but he never
showed it. He was a great role model for me.”
The young Keough enlisted in the Navy and after serving two years, went
to Creighton University on the G.I. Bill. He began his career in television
and radio, and moved on to marketing for a food company, which was acquired
by Coca-Cola in 1964. And thus began a career that culminated in Keough’s
being named president of Coca-Cola in 1974.
Keough stepped down from his position at Coca-Cola in 1993, having served
as president, chief operating officer, and director of the worldwide Coca-Cola
Company, but continues to serve as an adviser to the board. He is currently
the chairman of Allen & Company, an investment banking firm in New
York.
Throughout his steady rise up the corporate ladder, Keough’s pride
in his Irish heritage remained constant. And after a career in corporate
America he turned to a venture of a different kind – investing in
Irish Studies.
In 1993, with an endowment of $2.5 million he established the Keough Institute
of Irish Studies at Notre Dame, and the Keough Notre Dame Centre in Dublin,
Ireland. “Notre Dame didn’t have any type of academic Irish
studies program. It just seemed like a natural fit to me,” Keough
said at the time. Today, over 400 students are part of Notre Dame’s
Irish Studies Program.
Keough is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Horatio Alger
Award, and the Notre Dame Laetare Medal. – Patricia Harty
 Tom Moran
The picture of Tom Moran (above) in Ethiopia says a lot about who he
is. He just doesn’t send a check, he delivers it in person, or at
least makes sure that it gets to where it can do the most good. Known
in the corporate world as a savvy businessman – he is the chairman,
president and CEO of the preeminent life insurance company Mutual of America
– he is also chairman of Concern Worldwide (U.S.), an international
humanitarian organization dedicated to serving the poorest people throughout
the world.
Tom became a friend to Concern, which was founded in Ireland by Father
Aengus Finnucane, when it was largely unknown in the U.S., and his commitment
grew to his current position as chairman. He was also instrumental in
the Northern Ireland peace process. Though he rarely gives interviews,
preferring to shun the spotlight, he works quietly behind the scenes,
befriending politicians and activists on both sides of the divide. He
is held in high regard by members of both communities in Northern Ireland,
as evidenced recently at the sad occasion of the funeral of Progressive
Unionist Party leader David Ervine, when Ervine’s family asked him
to speak.
Tom, who is also on the board of Aer Lingus, and the Bank of Ireland,
was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science (Economics) by Queen’s
University, Belfast. Delivering the citation, Tom Lynch, Chairman of the
Queen’s University of Belfast Foundation Board, said: “Today
we honor a man whose public and private lives are defined by service and
generosity and a steadfast commitment to helping others.
“To all Tom does he brings a profound sense of interest in public
service, whether it be in Northern Ireland or in his charitable, philanthropic
and educational work. He does this without ever being arrogant or self-important.
His achievements would not have been possible without a sincere interest
in others and a genuine understanding of people.”
Tom, who is Italian on his mother’s side, traces his Irish roots
to Cavan and Fermanagh. He lives in New York City with his wife, Joan.
– Patricia Harty
 Norm McCelland
Norm McClelland is so proud of his Irish heritage that he is leading
the charge to create an 11,000-square-foot state-of-the-art library at
the Phoenix Irish Cultural Center.
Born into an Irish immigrant family, and armed with a dual undergraduate
major in agriculture and business administration, Norman McClelland took
his father’s small dairy in Tucson, Arizona and transformed it into
the largest dairy in the Southwest and the seventh largest food distribution
companies in the United States.
Shamrock Foods Company – parent company of Shamrock Farms Dairy
and Shamrock Foods – was started by Norman’s father W.T. McClelland
in 1912 with a model T truck and a couple of cows. After 85 years of successful
business growth, McClelland is proud of the family company’s ability
to thrive as one of the top five privately held Arizona-based companies.
As one of the largest employers in Arizona, Shamrock Foods Company is
a significant contributor to the community by supporting more than 80
non-profit organizations every year – many of which are education-focused
– and donating more than 80,000 pounds of food per month.
McClelland, himself serves as a role model for the philosophy he instills
in his company, by actively supporting many charitable, business and community
organizations including the University of Arizona, Barrow Neurological
Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Thomas J. Pappus Elementary, Arizona
State University, and the Irish Cultural & Learning Center among others.
McClelland just returned from Ireland where he and the 80-member-strong
McClelland family met to launch a family history book, The McClellands
of Clolughenramer.
 John Melia
John Melia is the founder and executive director of the Wounded Warrior
Project (WWP), which provides programs and services for wounded veterans
and their families, including counseling, rehabilitation, and adaptive
sports and recreation programs.
Melia served on active duty with the 1st Marine Division, and it was an
injury he incurred in a helicopter crash off the coast of Somalia that
led him to recognize the lack of necessities and comfort items provided
for wounded soldiers during hospital stays. He and his family began the
Wounded Warrior Project in 2002 by buying these items and packing them
into backpacks in their basement, then delivering them to the hospital
bedsides of soldiers.
“It has been the most amazing time,” says Melia, who received
numerous decorations for his service including the Combat Action Ribbon,
and the Kuwait Liberation Medal for his service in the Persian Gulf and
Somalia. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d never
set up a nonprofit before. But it’s almost as though everything
has taken care of itself.”
Prior to his work with WWP, Melia worked as a veterans’ advocate
with the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and later served on the Board
of Veterans Appeal. A second-generation Irish-American with roots in Mayo
and Cork, Melia grew up in Massachusetts. He and his wife, Julie, have
two children, Miranda and Cassandra.– Michelle Harty
 Kevin Mullane
On October 27, 2006, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly honored police
officers Kevin Mullane (pictured with Commissioner Kelly) and Robert Albano
for bravery in the line of duty. In the early hours of October 2, the
two risked their lives to save three children trapped in a burning vehicle
after it crashed off the Staten Island Expressway.
The officers were stopped by a passerby who witnessed the accident,
and rushed to the scene. “The car was engulfed with flames,”
Officer Mullane recalled. “My partner arrived at the scene first
as I was getting tools out of our car in case there was someone in the
car that we had to extract. We presumed the parents were in the front
seat and there were three children in the back seat. Officer Albano was
able to get two children out, and I went to the other side and was able
to break the window to get the last child.”
Mullane and Albano are still haunted by the fact that they couldn’t
save the parents who were trapped in the front seat. “Everything
happened so fast we were lucky to be able to save the children, who escaped
with minor injuries,” Mullane told Irish America.
Mullane, whose father’s family is from Cork and whose mother’s
side hails from Mayo, is married with three kids. He has been on the force
for almost ten years and has a brother, Bryan, also a policeman, who works
in the same highway unit. – Declan O’Kelly
 Flip Mullen
You can’t get much more community- minded than Flip Mullen. The
Rockaway, Queens native has served the public, both as an NYPD officer
in the mid 60’s (during which time he received the Thomas J. Mackell
Award for Outstanding Heroism) and for 18 years with the FDNY where he
received numerous commendations and medals.
Every year he and wife Rita hold a fundraiser in Rockaway for Special
Athletes, and for 19 years he has volunteered as a ski instructor teaching
adults and children with disabilities to ski. When contacted by the Walter
Reed Memorial Army Medical Hospital to see if he would be willing to help
wounded soldiers, he simply said yes.
For two years Mullen, in conjunction with the Wounded Warriors Project
and galvanized by the support of local families in the Rockaway area,
has organized the visit of wounded soldiers to the area for a four-day
summer sports festival. Last year, from July 6-9, 40 soldiers from the
hospital stayed with local families. The weekend began with a police escort
from Goethals Bridge to Rockaway with five NYPD helicopters leading the
way. Fireboats in the river sprayed red, white and blue water into the
air to begin the weekend in spectacular style.
Injured soldiers who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan water-skied,
scuba dived and took part in other water activities at Rockaway Point.
Rehab for these wounded warriors can be an arduous process, and activity
breaks such as those Flip provides are much-needed morale-boosters. Mullen
has also started a winter weekend program for the soldiers at Windham
Mountain in the Catskills. This past February over three dozen soldiers
spent three days on the slopes.
Flip, who traces his Irish roots to counties Galway, Sligo and Roscommon,
and Rita have seven children. – Declan O’Kelly
 Bill O’Brien
Bill O’Brien discovered life in 1933, ten years after he was born.
Bill’s dad, James Mathew O’Brien, a first generation Irish-American,
had prospered in law until 1929 when he lost everything and had to move
the family to the boondocks of Los Angeles called Brentwood. That was
when Bill’s life began, in his opinion. The Depression was tough
on the grownups but great for kids like Bill, who ran a trap line in the
hills in the winter and a halibut set line off Santa Monica in the summer.
After graduating from high school, Bill hitchhiked to Cottonwood, Arizona
to be a cowboy. He worked on ranches two years and went to the University
of Arizona Agricultural College in Tucson. He joined the U.S. Cavalry
R.O.T.C. and played polo, was on the rifle team and the boxing team (Bill
and his two brothers took boxing lessons starting at age 8. His older
brother, Jim, was California Amateur Champion, and Bill was Arizona Amateur
Champion and Don was Golden Gloves Champion West of the Mississippi.)
When World War II broke out, the U. S. Cavalry sold all its horses and
Bill joined the Navy. He ended up in the South Pacific Theater on island
attack missions, including Iwo Jima, for three years. Discharged in 1946,
he went back to Tucson to finish college, graduating with a B.S. degree
(Ag-Econ in wool). He entered the wool business in Boston, married Sarah
Paine and together they traveled the western territory states buying wool,
two seasons in South Africa buying wool for Japan and four years buying
and selling wool and alpaca in Peru, Chile, Argentina.
In 1959 Sarah contracted polio on their Little Millis Farm out of Boston.
Bill sold his wool business, the Little Millis Farm, and the foxhunters
and moved back to Arizona. The change and warm weather brought Sarah’s
strength back. Bill, active in land, bought a big old desert ranch which
they “cowboyed” 45 years and sold over a year ago. They live
in the same home in Paradise Valley that they purchased in 1959.
 Sheila O’Brien
Sheila O’Brien, pictured left, is the executive director of NEADS
(Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans). The non-profit organization has
been training and providing dogs for the deaf and physically disabled
since 1976, and now with two innovative new projects, the Canines for
Combat Veterans program and the Prison PUP Partnership, veterans and prison
inmates have been added to the categories of people that they help.
So far, over 23,000 disabled veterans have returned from Iraq, many
of them single or double amputees. NEADS saw an opportunity to help. “The
veterans are very young. They don’t want a cane or a walker. The
dogs fit in better with their lifestyle,” say Sheila. The Prison
PUP partnership, a collaboration with several correctional facilities
in which inmates train puppies, is helping to meet this heightened demand.
O’Brien says that this is “one of the best partnerships I
have ever been involved in” because “everyone wins.”
Dogs trained in prisons have an 84 percent success rate compared to a
54 percent rate when trained by families, and are trained in about half
the time. The training also benefits the inmates. Correctional staff has
even noted an incredible change in the overall prison atmosphere.
O’Brien, whose maiden name is McKeon, has Irish roots on both sides
of her family. She lives in Massachusetts with her daughter, Meghan. –
Michelle Harty
 Emmett
O’Connell
Born in the South Bronx in 1936, Emmett O’Connell has been traveling
for 50 years. Working in a dozen or so countries on six continents, he
has spawned a score or more mineral exploration projects. Along the way
he found time to stitch a few new patches onto the global quilt of the
Irish diaspora. His estimate of 70 million Irish and Irish descendants
abroad has been generally accepted as accurate.
An incisive writer, O’Connell has published several hundred articles,
book reviews and pamphlets on matters of Irish interest (several of which
have appeared in Irish America).
When not kicking dust from his boots in some distant corner of the world,
Emmett lives with Ray, his wife of 46 years, on a farm in Wexford, Ireland.
He has been a Papal Knight of St. Gregory for 20 years.
 Patricia Prior
Patricia Prior is the president of the Irish Cultural and Learning Foundation,
the governing body of the new Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The center has become the focal point for Irish culture and heritage in
the state, which has an estimated Irish population of 425,000.
Several years ago, Patricia co-founded a group of Irish-American businesspersons
called E.R.I.N. (Executive Resources for Irish Networking). This group
is still going strong in Phoenix. Patricia also served as chairperson
of the Irish step-dancing competition, “Feis in the Desert”
for many years. She has also been very involved with the Bracken School
of Irish Dance, which has produced many championship dancers in Arizona
and California. And now, through her involvement with the new Irish Center,
she is helping to ensure that the best of Irish culture is available in
Arizona. Patricia and the center’s management are proud to host
Irish dignitaries and exhibitions, including, this spring, the Brian P.
Burns Collection of Irish Paintings, featuring works from mid-nineteenth
to mid-twentieth century Irish artists.
Prior, who is Irish born, has operated a thriving residential real estate
business in the Phoenix area for the past 21 years. She moved to Arizona
in 1971, where she first met her husband Sean Prior, who also comes from
Ireland. Patricia and Sean now have three grown children, Dara, Adele
and Brendan, and two grandchildren. Patricia returns to Ireland as often
as she can to visit her mother, Ann Colfer, who resides in Waterford.
 The
Tribute Center
The Tribute Center, created by the September 11th Families Association,
opened its doors on September 18, 2006 at 120 Liberty Street – across
from the World Trace Center site. Barely four months after it opened,
over 100,000 people had visited it.
Lynn Tierney, president of the Tribute Center, says, “You get the
full experience. You get a taste of what it was like there.” Tierney,
who was deputy commissioner of the FDNY on 9/11, lost many colleagues.
Now she and her colleagues at the Center have turned their grief into
action and built a very personal memorial.
Photos, keepsakes, mementos, and tributes sent in by victims’ families
all help the outsider get a firsthand feel for the immense tragedy of
the day. The Center also conducts tours of the WTC site which are led
by family members, including the Center’s co-founder Lee Ielpi,
a retired firefighter who lost his firefighter son, Jonathan, in the collapse
of the South Tower (Jonathan’s firefighter jacket is on display
at the Center). The tours, like the memorial, give the public a chance
to learn the story of September 11 from those who were most affected by
the tragedy.
Billy O’Callaghan, who lost his brother Lt. Daniel O’Callaghan
from Ladder 4, Engine 53, Midtown Manhattan (which lost their whole group),
says that he is involved in the Center so “People will continue
to know what happened. So many are touched by the tours and will come
back. The pain won’t go away but we continue to strive.”
 The Tribute
Center features five galleries. One wall is covered in the missing-person
fliers that blanketed the city in the days after the attacks. Another
section holds twisted metal from Ground Zero. The gallery on the lower
level features images and objects that reflect the outpouring of support
from across the nation and around the world, and it includes a quote from
Pat Ryan, CEO of Aon (Irish for one), which lost many employees on the
day. “Suffering together reminds us of the truth of our humanity.
It reminds us that none of us is truly alone. We are interconnected.”
 Ciaran
Staunton
Behind every good organization stand a few good men (and women), and
the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) is no exception. Playing
a starring role in the Irish immigration battle to date, Vice Chairman
of ILIR Ciaran Staunton has been described by some as “one of the
most dynamic personalities involved in ILIR” and by others as “the
man that won’t take no for an answer.”
Staunton, who emigrated from Westport, County Mayo in 1982, is renowned
for captivating speeches and razor-sharp wit – “The baby who
screams the loudest gets fed the quickest,” and “The only
creatures I know that continually go around with their heads down are
sheep, and they end up in the slaughterhouse.”
Staunton, proprietor of O’Neill’s Bar and Restaurant in Manhattan,
commenced his journey into politics by becoming a co-founder of the Irish
Immigration Reform Movement (IIRM) back in 1987, in which his triumphant
lobbying led to the creations of the Morrison Visas.
“I was a bartender in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in the early 80’s.
Every night, and I mean every night, we had people coming in who were
just off the plane. We would take it upon ourselves to find these new
Irish a couch to sleep on until they got a job and their own place. I
had people on the couch myself for years; they would stay a couple of
nights, get a job and then get their own house. In a few months they would
have people sleeping on their couches,” said Staunton.
While these new Irish worked tirelessly, and for most it wasn’t
in the area they were educated, they were confronted with the threat of
deportation daily. Enter Staunton and other like-minded people who felt
it was time to rectify the situation. Staunton and comrades lobbied the
U.S. Congress to correct the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which
no longer favored Irish immigrants. Congressman Brian Donnelly got on
board and succeeded in amending the Act so that 40,000 non-preference
visas were released over a three year period via a lottery, with the result
that 16,000 Irish were able to claim legal status. However, thousands
of Irish were left in limbo, so something more had to be done; hence the
formation of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement in 1987, a grass roots
movement to legalize the undocumented Irish by working on Congress to
modify legislation. Some three years and lots of gray hairs later, the
IIRM achieved what it set out to do with the creation by Congress of the
Morrison Visas program, named for Connecticut Congressman Brian Morrison.
Staunton, noted for energizing and humoring his audience, once referred
to his work with the IIRM by saying “We were told we didn’t
know what we were doing, Well, the naysayers were right, we didn’t
know, but in the end we got 48,000 Morrison Visas for Irish people, so
we were pretty happy with that!”
And now Staunton is on the move again and suited up for battle. Along
with Niall O’Dowd, ILIR Chairman (and Irish America’s publisher),
Staunton established the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform in December,
2005.
“We sat down at the Affinia Hotel in New York and the main issue
facing us was that no one was doing anything for the undocumented,”
he said. From there the group was created to lobby the government on behalf
of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish currently living in the United
States.
“Because the Irish can’t come to the U.S., more and more seem
to be heading to Australia. It’s a pity because the losers, if the
ILIR fails, will be the Irish-American community. If the flame goes out
it will be on Irish America, but our plan is not to let that happen,”
promises Staunton.
Mary Brennan, an Irishwoman who has been living in the shadows since 1990,
calls Staunton a hero. “You would think butter wouldn’t melt
in his mouth until he takes the microphone and blows us all away with
his motivational speeches and promises that we know are coming from his
heart,” she said.
 Brennan, who
has a nursing degree but can’t work in her specialized area because
of her status, suffered the mother of all tragedies in 2006. She received
a phone call one Saturday morning last April to be told her 23-year-old
brother and his girlfriend had been killed in an accident. Having been
involved with the ILIR since the beginning, she knew the consequences
she was about to face when she made arrangements to go home for the funeral.
However, “My mother got on the phone and asked me not to turn one
family tragedy into another tragedy and pleaded with me to remain in the
U.S.,” recalls Brennan, who said it was the most difficult decision
she has ever had to make. “It’s the likes of Ciaran who motivated
me to get involved with the ILIR, and thanks to him I’m playing
my part in the fight,” she said.
Under current immigration laws, it is more or less impossible for an Irish
person to legally immigrate to the U.S. Last year the ILIR threw its weight
behind the Kennedy/McCain Immigration Reform Bill, which planned to establish
a large guest-worker program and create a path to citizenship for current
illegal immigrants. The bill breezed through the Senate and got the approval
of the President but it was rejected by the House of Representatives.
With lawmakers squabbling amid chaos that ended with a nay vote on comprehensive
immigration reform, the ILIR proved that the organization was in it for
the long haul. “We are only getting started. We are in this until
the end and 2007 will be our year,” said Staunton. The Kennedy/McCain
bill is to be re-introduced into Congress this winter and the ILIR is
more positive that it will pass the House this time around. “We
have a more favorable Congress this time to work with; it’s like
the stars have finally aligned for us,” said Staunton.
Since its inception, the ILIR has held several well-attended immigration
rallies throughout the U.S. including Philadelphia, San Francisco, New
York and Boston. And it has also organized three triumphant lobby days
in the marble halls of Congress, where ILIR members were deployed to meet
with various politicians to discuss the issue facing the Irish-American
community and ask them to support a path to citizenship for all the undocumented.
Sporting the famous green and white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan
“Legalize the Irish,” the ILIR certainly got its message across
to Capitol Hill. “Senator McCain told us that our last lobby days
in Washington turned around the votes of five senators, so we must be
doing something right,” said Staunton. More than 10,000 Irish-Americans
attended those events, while an estimated 300,000 have signed up to give
their support.
When Staunton told a crowd in Washington they didn’t have far to
look for heroes on the day – “everyone who made the trip to
D.C. was a hero,” he said – Sean Gorman, a 30-year-old plumber
from Queens, was moved. “I always thought I was alone, but I know
as long as I have Irish blood pumping through my veins, I’ll never
be alone,” he told the Irish Voice.
A growing number of senators and congressmen have united to show their
commitment to bringing the Irish out of the shadows at various ILIR rallies
nationwide. “One of our targets to begin with was to get our two
New York senators involved, Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and they
came on board,” said Staunton, who also mentioned various other
like-minded politicians, from both the Republican and Democratic side.
Staunton realizes that without the support of ILIR members there would
be no progress. “It’s you people who deserve the credit, not
us. You come into this meeting as an undocumented resident, but you’re
leaving as a political activist. We’re members of the-sky’s-the-limit
club, not the-sky-is-falling club!,” he told the audience at a recent
rally.
This drive and purpose has touched ILIR members. “Ciaran is one
of the most dynamic personalities involved in ILIR and his passion has
been inspiring from the very beginning,” said Samantha Melia, who
hails from Dublin. “For me Ciaran took the shame away from being
undocumented, he made us proud of who we are and the fact that we want
to fight to stay and live in America.” Melia, who has been involved
with ILIR since the beginning, has bravely stood up at rallies and told
her story of being undocumented to over 1,000 people at a time. She is
married to Liam, holds a psychology degree and has been working in a bar
since she came to New York.
“We’re not looking for preferential treatment but we are
looking for equality,” says Staunton, who lives in Queens with his
wife Orlaith, son Rory, 8, and daughter Kathleen, 4. He also played a
starring role in the Northern Ireland peace process and worked closely
with Sinn Féin leadership and Irish-American leaders to bring about
the Gerry Adams visa and the IRA ceasefire. He has no doubt that this
new Congress will produce the desired outcome that will be so welcomed
by the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish.
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