Episodes

Clare McGee wears multiple hats, most notably as a principal of Innovate-NI, a management consulting company established 2016 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Along with cofounder Dr. Barney Toal, the company focuses on small business development, entrepreneurship, digital and social innovation projects. Clare is also a cofounder of AwakenHub, a social enterprise organization whose mission is to level up opportunity, access and connectivity for women founders throughout the Island of Ireland by remo...

For Paul Finnegan it all goes back to his hometown of Galway City, “a small city but I refuse to call it a town” he says and a “crucible of many great things,” notwithstanding its reputation for being “where ambition goes to die.” But Paul explains why, despite his love for “The City of Tribes,” he traded “one great city for another'' and moved from Galway City to New York City, where he embarked on a career as a career changer--becoming the executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration ...

How much of our history would remain buried if not for a few intrepid explorers of the past? In this episode we explore little known Irish diaspora stories buried in cemeteries over 1,300 miles apart in Colorado and Georgia. Drawing on his research of an abandoned cemetery high in the Rocky Mountains, historian Prof. Jim Walsh tells the tale of the Irish miners who migrated to work hard and die young in Leadville, Colorado, the highest incorporated town in America. Archaeologist and his...

Natalie Nugent O’Shea takes us from St. Paul, Minnesota, around the world with Riverdance, to Dublin to start a family, and then back home to St. Paul where she’d co-found a home for Irish arts and culture in the Midwest, the Celtic Junction Arts Center. She tells us of her arm’s-length relationship to Ireland until moonlighting as a lighting designer for a touring production of Riverdance, falling in love not only with the music and dance, but also with one of the original Riverdancers, her ...

WASSUP? Season III of Irish Stew is WASSUP! We launch with an episode on the Irish ad man responsible for the memorable Budweiser commercial that had people around the world shouting WASSUP--Vinny Warren. Vinny takes you from his native Galway to London, New York, Boston and finally Chicago, relates why his time as a bartender would later prove so valuable, how being a Central Park carriage driver fit into his unorthodox career strategy, his near death experiences with both the mafia and a...

Emer Rocke gives an insider’s perspective on the lives of those most global of Irish citizens, the people of Ireland’s diplomatic corps. The Deputy Ambassador of Ireland to the United States at time of the interview, now Director of U.S. and Canadian Relations, Emer discusses the rewards and challenges of the diplomatic life, how Ireland punches above its weight in the international arena, why other countries view Ireland as an “honest broker,” how convening is a key soft power, its current role...

Janet Behan carries on the family tradition of creativity in both her acting and writing. The London-born daughter of Dublin-born playwright Brian Behan & Celia Behan, great niece of the songwriter Peadar Kearney (author of Amhrán na bhFiann, the Irish National Anthem), and niece of the writers Dominic Behan and Brendan Behan. On this serving of The Stew, she tells of a deprived but happy childhood “that took a bit of recovering from” and how “playing the fool” to ease family tensions led her...

Cauvery Madhavan adds Indian spices to this serving of Irish Stew as we trace her journey from Chennai, India to Sligo, Ireland, to County Kildare, and travel back with her to India to explore Irish stories there through her epic novel The Tainted. We talk of race and color in India and Ireland, the Anglo-Indians who were often more Irish than Anglo, the bonds Indian students forged with Irish revolutionaries, the dearth of spices in Sligo, the political scene in India today, how she and her fam...

A legal advocate for immigration in America, Irish-born, Chicago-based Fiona McEntee is a recognizable media-friendly face and voice in the U.S. immigration conversation through interviews by MSNBC, BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Chicago Tribune…and now Irish Stew. She is the founding and managing attorney of McEntee Law Group which represents individuals, families, and some of the world’s leading musicians (including the Coronas), artists, athletes, and entrepreneurs. As a pr...

Dublin born Paddy McGrath represented his native country at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. For many, that pinnacle achievement would represent an end point to the pursuit of glory in an athletic career. Most, who chase perfection in the hammer throwing circle, leave the sport for more lucrative endeavors. While Paddy hung up his hammer glove some 20 years ago, he has continued his involvement in the sport giving back to an event that provided him a college education in the form of an athletic scho...

Fin's Links Irish History Podcast Twitter Instagram Episode Details Fin Dwyer has always been interested in history. He grew up in Castlecomer, Kilkenny surrounded by the vestiges of the past and so when he went to college, he pursued this passion, graduating with a master's degree in archaeology. However, the best laid plans often go awry, the freshly minted graduate started out in his chosen field only to have his career prospects crushed by the financial downturn of 2008. Coincidental...

With the republication of his epic novel Banished Children of Eve, the Bard of Hastings-on-Hudson Peter Quinn joins us for a sometimes serious, occasionally irreverent, always insightful look into the global Irish identity from the Irish American perspective. We follow the immigrant’s evolution from the “Paddy” of the famine Irish who washed up on U.S. shores and into Banished…to “Pat” in dogged pursuit of the American dream, to the brash urban swagger of ”Jimmy” personified by actor Jimmy Cagne...

Sorcha’s story takes us back and forth across the Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean as she sets her course towards storytelling and journalism on radio and TV for RTE, Newstalk, BBC and CBS. With a step into the unknown she landed at the New York Film Academy earning a diploma in filmmaking and acquiring the skills she’d deploy most notably in “Passing It On: Ballymun Kickhams” for RTE 1, her telling of the improbable tale of a hardscrabble urban gaelic football team, described in the Irish Times as ...

Michael Dowling Links Website: www.michael-dowling.com After the Roof Caved In: Amazon Leading Through a Pandemic: Amazon Publisher: Simon & Schuster LinkedIn Twitter Episode Preview Episode Details Growing up in rural poverty in Co. Limerick, Michael Dowling was surrounded by a “cacophony of nos.” Fortunately for Dowling there was no better motivation than being told he couldn’t do something. That spirit and a prodigious amount of hard work propelled him through University Col...

Jack Byrne Links Under the Bridge: Amazon Publisher: Northodox Press Blog Twitter Facebook Episode Details Jack Byrne grew up in Liverpool, the son of post WWII Irish emigrants. In his first novel, Under the Bridge, Jack takes the Liverpool of his parent's era to craft an engrossing mystery featuring the post war Irish and their struggles as they try to make there way in a country that at times is hostile to their presence. We talk with Jack about his life, the challenges of writing and...

Turlough Links “Seamus” Plug: History Loves A Parade: 260 Years of the St. Patrick's Day Parade - Online on Wed, March 17, 2021, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET · Website: Turlough McConnell Communications · LinkedIn · Twitter · Facebook Preview Video Episode Description A brick came through the window and an idyllic life in the Co. Donegal resort town of Buncrana was shattered as The Troubles spilled over from Derry with the realization that “This can end.” Working to ensure that it doesn’t end ...

From when her mother gave her a book of James Thurber’s cartoons, Liza Donnelly has expressed her wit and rising political consciousness through pencils, pens, watercolors, and now through her live drawing on an iPad at the Oscars, the Democratic National Convention, other marquee events for CBS.

Ted Smyth Links: Shameless plug => Glucksman House Gala Feb 23 Website => https://tedsmyth.com LinkedIn Twitter Viewing life as “something of a random walk,” Ted Smyth went from rural to urban, to international, from leadership roles in diplomacy to C-suite roles in Fortune 500 companies, to a rich post-corporate career in Irish American community leadership. On this episode of Irish Stew, Ted describes his journey from a protestant farming community in Co. Westmeath, to “finding his place...

Shaunagh Connaire is an award winning journalist who has reported from some of the most challenging and troubled spots on the globe. In her most recent venture, a podcast called Media Tribe, she has shifted her focus towards highlighting the work of critically acclaimed journalists and media executives, providing a forum to tell the story behind the story Shaunagh will be Irish Stew's guest on the first episode of season 2. For more on Irish Stew, please visit: https://www.irishstewpodcast.com

Ruth Cannon BL is a Dublin based barrister specializing in property and probate law. Ruth acts as a guide in giving  an introduction to both the the esoterica and arcane that constitutes the Irish Legal profession and it's history on this episode.

Alison McKenna shares tales from acting on the stages of the Abbey, Gate, and Royal Shakespeare Company, traces her journey as a producer for the theatre and cultural programming such as New York’s centerpiece 1916 Centenary commemoration, and demonstrates why she’s an in-demand voiceover artist in the burgeoning field of audiobooks. Along the way she tells us why tap dancing’s loss was acting’s gain, how fitting into a particular costume was the opportunity she needed to win her first role at the Gate, the cheeky comment that helped her land a part at London’s National Theatre, how Hozier ended up performing at one of her events, and why Ireland needs to embrace its “culture makers,” now, more than ever.  Learn more about Alison McKenna at http://alison-mckenna.com Thanks for listening and we welcome your comments and reviews at: https://www.irishstewpodcast.com

For 10 years, Damian Shiels has mined the American Civil War pension files to tell the staggering story of Irish participation in that conflict. This archive is the richest source of early 19th century Irish social history. John Lee and Martin Nutty talk with Damian about his herculean work, his love of history and how that fits with his career in archaeology.  For more on Damian's work visit his amazing blog at: https://irishamericancivilwar.com Don't forget to subscribe to Irish Stew Podcast on your favorite podcast platform and you can visit www.IrishStewPodcast.com to get the latest on our work and provide feedback on our efforts.

Ciarán Cannon is the elected TD (Irish Member of Parliament aka Dáil Éireann) for the Galway East constituency. Ciarán served as Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development from 2017 - 2020. John Lee and Martin Nutty talk with Ciarán about the importance of the Diaspora to Ireland, the Irish word: Meitheal, the difficult decisions that elected officials are sometimes called upon to make and Ciarán's abiding interest in music. Please feel free to leave comments on this episo...

Geoff Cobb is a New York City school teacher, a blogger, a columnist and a historian with a focus on the lesser recorded histories of the personalities and neighborhoods that constitute the seething ferment that is New York City. Our conversation  focuses on Geoff's upcoming book detailing the lives of Irish New Yorkers who left a mark on the city and the state.