Giving While Living
by Patricia Harty
“After eating bitterness, a thousand flowers bloom.”
– Chinese proverb
A friend, a teacher in Northern Ireland, who is forever
puzzling over the intricacies of our race, recently asked me what
I considered to be the essence of the Irish character. Clarence
Darrow, the great American defense attorney, came to mind. Darrow
who spent his life defending the poor and the downtrodden, liked
to have Irish men on his juries because he believed that they, of
all people, had compassion.
I like to think that Darrow’s opinion of the Irish is accurate.
My friends over at Concern Worldwide, the Irish relief organization,
say it is. Siobhán Walsh, who heads up Concern’s New York office,
tells me that, per capita, the Irish in Ireland give more towards
world hunger relief than any other country. That compassionate trait
is also evident in Irish-Americans, Siobhán says.
And so in these days of corporate scandals we are happy to relate
that there are many fine corporate leaders out there who do have
a social conscience. Of course, they are all Irish or Irish-American!
Or so we would like you to believe.
Seriously, though, a quick glance at those profiled in our Business
100 feature shows that there are many fine philanthropic efforts
being carried out by the Irish in corporate America.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Tom Moran is the CEO of Mutual of America, but he is also the
North American Chairman of Concern, and he is doing a fine job of
ensuring that the organization has the funding to continue to bring
relief to the poor and disadvantaged in troubled spots all over
the world.
Raymond Gilmartin is chairman of Merck, a company which is donating
millions in drugs to prevent river blindness in a program reaching
25 million people a year in more than 30 countries. (Read “Into
Africa, Seeing and Believing,” page 16.)
Brian Connolly is president of Avon, the cosmetics company
that annually gives millions towards breast cancer research.
And James Irwin, Chairman of IMPAC, supports writing programs in
Connecticut and Mexico, and is responsible for the richest literary
prize in the world – the IMPAC Award of 100,000 euros presented
annually in Dublin. (See interview with Irwin on page 56.)
And then, of course, there is Charles “Chuck” Feeney, who has
taken philanthropy to a whole new level. Feeney, who grew
up in a working-class home in New Jersey during the Depression,
made a fortune when he founded Duty Free Shops. And he gave
it all away. Quietly.
While other philanthropists have their names up in lights, Feeney
gave on condition that he remain anonymous. Much of his fortune
went to institutions in Ireland, where Feeney is the largest private
supporter of higher education. The University of Limerick received
in excess of $38 million, but didn’t have a clue who its benefactor
was until the sale of Feeney’s business revealed the extent of his
staggering contributions, made through the Atlantic Philanthropies
organization.
After years of silence, we are honored that Mr. Feeney agreed
to be interviewed by Conor O’Clery for this issue. And further that
he allowed Peter Foley to take his photograph for our cover. (For
years, magazines such as Time and Businessweek have solicited us
for the only available photo of the philanthropist, which was taken
at our Business 100 Awards back in 1997, when Feeney was our keynote
speaker.)
Why Irish America, you may ask, when the world’s media is clamoring
to interview Feeney? Because he is an Irishman. And proud of it.
(And he has a friendship going back for years with our publisher,
Niall O’Dowd.) Feeney’s grandparents emigrated from Ireland to the
U.S. at a time when the Irish were experiencing much hardship. It
was a time when they were the underdog, and often needed the services
of Darrow and others. And now that the Irish have reached the pinnacle
of success in America, it is heartening to see that, out of struggle
and discrimination waged against our ancestors, a compassionate
heart survived and was passed down to a generation who can afford
to give a helping hand to others.
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