| Top 100 Community  Soldier
Ride: Carney, Kelly & Calhoun
Some people pontificate about giving back or making a difference, but
most of the time, despite good intentions, it remains all talk and no
action.
Chris Carney does not fall into the above category. Originally from Centerville,
Iowa and currently based in East Hampton, New York, Carney never served
in the military, but in the past couple of years he has done much to raise
funds and morale for returning wounded servicemen and women.
Chris’s first effort was when he and some friends organized a fundraiser
for a local soldier who had been wounded in Iraq. The success of the event,
held at a nightclub in Amagansett, New York, inspired the group to visit
the Walter Reed Army Memorial Center in Washington, D.C., where wounded
soldiers undergo rehabilitation. That visit had a profound effect on Chris.
Seeing the soldiers and meeting John Melia, the Irish-American founder
of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), inspired him to found Soldier Ride.
In 2004, Chris cycled from California to New York to raise funds for the
WWP. He was joined on part of the ride in Colorado by veterans Sgt. Heath
Calhoun and Sgt. Ryan Kelly, who vowed to complete the entire ride with
Chris the following year. On May 31, 2005, the three set out from Marina
Del Ray in Los Angeles and arrived in Montauk, New York on July 18. Calhoun,
who had both of his legs amputated after a rocket-propelled grenade hit
a truck in which he was riding, used a three-wheeled hand cycle, while
Kelly, whose lower leg was blown off in an ambush near Baghdad, wore a
prosthetic leg to complete the mammoth trip.
So far Soldier Ride has raised almost $525,000, much of which went to
funding the WWP backpack program, an initiative to give returning soldiers
comfort items and toiletries and help finance family visits to rehab facilities.
Soldier Ride is planning more rides and events in different states across
the U.S. and has plans of raising $5 million.
Calhoun and Kelly have also led the fight to get the U.S. government
to recognize and address the increased needs of returning wounded veterans.
Prior to their intervention, returning wounded soldiers were only entitled
to life insurance, and this was not near enough to take care of medical
and family bills. Consequently, Calhoun, Kelly and Jeremy Feldbusch lobbied
Washington relentlessly for legislative change.
Their persistence and determination paid off when Traumatic Servicemembers
Group Life Insurance (TSGLI) was introduced. Wounded soldiers are now
due disability insurance, which ranges from $25,000 to $100,000. More
than 600 soldiers have benefited from this extra aid so far.
Kelly and wife Lindsay live in Prescott Arizona, The story of their
marriage on August 8, 2003 is a little unusual. Determined to tie the
knot, they had to be creative because Lindsay was in Iraq and Ryan was
in Washington recovering from his wounds. The District of Columbia stipulates
that someone must physically stand in for a missing partner at the ceremony,
so Lindsay’s mom Debbie duly obliged.
The couple wed with Ryan and Debbie at the ceremony and Lindsay on satellite
phone from Iraq. "The joke going round was that Sergeant Kelly married
his mother-in-law!" Ryan recently told me from Arizona. He is about
to finish school this semester and will stay at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University as a helicopter flight instructor. Last year, in New York,
the "Kelly Gang, " a diverse group of people who share the same
last name, recognized Ryan’s contribution to both the Soldier Ride
and the clan’s good name by holding a fundraiser and donating all
funds to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Heath Calhoun lives in Virginia with his wife Tiffany Marie. He works
full time at the WWP as an Outreach Co-Ordinator. In this role he keeps
in touch with veterans who have left hospital, making sure they are aware
of all their rights and benefits. He is also in charge of organizing sports
events for WWP members. "I think our organization does a lot of good
and I am glad to work for a cause that is near and dear to my heart."
Heath Calhoun’s family is Scots-Irish, while Chris Carney traces
his Irish roots to County Donegal. John Gordon Kelly, Ryan’s great-great-great-
grandfather was from Clougher, County Tyrone, and Ryan also has family
on his dad’s side from County Cork.
John Melia, founder of WWP and second generation Irish-American with roots
in Mayo and Cork, sums up the efforts of the three men best, "Chris
was the catalyst to make all this work, and Soldier Ride has become a
rolling advertisement for our project. I have no doubt that the WWP would
clearly be nowhere near the place it is today without the efforts of Chris,
Heath and Ryan. These are three good guys, three good Irishmen."
For more information on Soldier Ride visit www.soldierrideinfo.org or
call 866 RIDE G11. -DOK
Father Michael Doyle and The Heart of Camden
This is not a story of one person. It’s a story of community.
Sometime in 1984 Father Michael Doyle was celebrating his tenth year as
pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and School. There wasn’t much to celebrate.
All around him South Camden, New Jersey was being ravaged by poverty and
neglect, more and more houses were being vacated, wrecked and demolished
and businesses were closing.
But Father Doyle, who is originally from Longford, Ireland, saw beyond
the neglect, and with the help of others in the community The Heart of
Camden was born.
What began as a housing development organization – over the past
20 years some 150 vacant houses have been fully restored, including 14
this past year, and more than 150 low-income families have been assisted
in the purchase of homes – has now expanded to include the Hynes
Center, which operates social services for the neighborhood.
Sister Peg Hynes was one of the first to join Father Doyle’s mission.
In 1986, she left her 30-year teaching career to work with The Heart of
Camden. The Sister Peg years not only laid the foundation for the organization’s
work; they gave the whole effort its flavor. But in 2002 Sister Peg was
killed in a car accident the day before she would have overseen the distribution
of more than 1,000 Christmas baskets to poor families in South Camden.
Her loss was a huge blow to the organization, but there was a legacy to
fulfill and a dream to carry on.
Pat Mulligan, who grew up alongside Father Doyle in Longford, had been
involved in The Heart of Camden for some time, and after retiring from
the Department of Housing and Urban Development after 29 years, he came
to work for Sister Peg part time. He and Helene Pierson, who had been
a part time finance director at The Heart of Camden since May, 2002, became
co-directors in 2004, with Pierson named as executive director in winter
2005.
Helene, whose mother’s family, the Egans were from the same neighborhood
of North Philadelphia as Sister Peg’s, has strong connections to
South Camden. Her great-grandparents lived and raised ten children just
a couple of blocks from Sacred Heart School, which her father attended
from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Back then the 240 or so students were all white and Catholic; today they
are mostly black and Baptist. But, like their predecessors over nearly
a century, Father Doyle says, “They are the children of good, resourceful
people who care deeply about their children’s education.”
The student body is not the only change that the years have brought to
Sacred Heart, which today is within smelling distance of a sewer and trash-burning
plant.
Having worked in the area for six years, Mulligan says he has seen the
direct effects of the pollution on the residents of the neighborhood.
With that in mind The Heart of Camden is now taking on the environment.
“We’ve expanded our mission to include social service and
now we are going to make sure that as far as possible the pollution is
mitigated,” says Mulligan.
Meanwhile, a fund has been established in the name of Sister Peg Hynes,
and scholarships will be granted periodically to students from Sacred
Heart for tuition to Camden Catholic High School.
A quick read of The Heart Beat, the organization’s biannual newsletter
(mostly written by Pat Mulligan) offers a wonderful glimpse into this
caring community. Take the item about Mary Flynn’s birthday, for
example. Instead of gifts, Mary asked her guests to donate to the Sister
Peg Hynes Scholarship Fund, the result was over $5,000 raised. Jim Delaney,
her friend and member of the scholarship advisory committee, helped facilitate
the gift.
Heart Beat reports that Jeremy Sullivan completed a 7,100-mile cross-country
bike journey from Camden to San Diego raising $30,000 for The Heart of
Camden. (The organization does a lot of fundraising to match grants that
it gets from government agencies). With the $30,000 that Sullivan raised,
and another $30,000 from the Connelly Foundation, a Career Assistance
Program was established at the Hynes Center.
And with the help of John Connors, Jim Kehoe, Phil Nippins, and several
unions and contractors who donated materials and labor, a house next to
the school was renovated. It will be occupied by the church and school
facilities manager.
Then there’s the greenhouse on Emerald Street, dedicated in memory
of John Scanlan by his wife Mary Louise and children, who gave a grant
of $24,000; it produces flowers, fruits and vegetables for the community.
Most of all it is an incubator of learning about the earth and its natural
wonders for the children of Sacred Heart and South Camden.
Meanwhile, Father Doyle has written a book called It’s a Terrible
Day, Thank God, sales from which will benefit The Heart of Camden. - PH
For more information call 856-966-1212 or visit www.heartofcamden.org
Charles Feeney
Charles “Chuck” Feeney has never sought glory and praise.
Yet his tremendous generosity speaks volumes. Feeney sprang into the public
eye in 1996, when it emerged that he had donated over $600 million, a
huge portion of his personal wealth, to create Atlantic Foundation, the
fourth-largest philanthropic organization in the U.S.
The New Jersey businessman was unmasked as the anonymous donor who had
given huge sums of money to educational institutions and charitable foundations
only after the chain of Duty Free Shops he had co-founded was sold. Three
Irish universities – Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University,
and the University of Limerick – have all benefited from his magnanimity.
And his generosity and dedication do not stop there. Feeney was instrumental
in bringing American involvement to bear on the Irish peace process, and
funded the establishment of the Sinn Féin Office in Washington,
D.C.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Feeney also played a crucial role in helping
Irish immigrants win legal status in the United States, a cause he still
fervently supports through his role on the advisory board of The Irish
Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR).
Feeney’s Irish roots go back to County Fermanagh and he holds dual
citizenship in Ireland and the U.S. - DOK
 William Flynn
William “Bill” Flynn will always be remembered as the man
who dispensed with a great taboo – the notion that American business
should not get involved in bringing peace to Ireland. He broke the mold
when he became a crucial figure in the Northern Ireland peace process,
chairing the National Committee on Foreign Policy and helping to broker
the IRA ceasefire.
In 1999, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy published
Journey to Belfast and London, a report and policy recommendations. That
same year, Flynn was also honored at the Peace Links gala in Washington
for his efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Flynn, who recently retired as chairman of Mutual of America, a company
he helped build into the insurance giant it is today, is also the chairman
of Flax Trust America, an organization committed to the relief of poverty,
dependency and unemployment in Northern Ireland. He serves on the Boards
of The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, The Elie Wiesel Foundation
for Humanity, Nassau County Crime Stoppers, The Ireland America Economic
Advisory Board to the Taoiseach and The Forum Club.
Early in 2001, Flynn received the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal
from the Department of the Army for extraordinary service as an expert
consultant on the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors. He is also
a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the American Cancer
Society’s Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Memorial Award and the Life Services
for the Handicapped National Leadership Award.
In 1999 Irish America named Flynn, pictured left as Grand Marshal of
the 1999 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York, to the Greatest Irish-Americans
of the Century list. He is a first-generation Irish-American, with roots
in counties Mayo and Down.
Erin Garrity-Rank
As the CEO and president of Habitat for Humanity’s Greater Los
Angeles area (HFH GLA), Erin Garrity-Rank is responsible for over 1,000
employees and an area that covers over 900 square miles. She was instrumental
in helping to organize 400 volunteers build the frames for six houses
that were shipped from California to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina.
Rank (nee Garrity) is a third-generation Irish-American who grew up in
Saint Louis, Missouri. She is married to Wally Rank, the first person
of Samoan heritage to play in the National Basketball Association. Wally
is also involved in community work, and works with at-risk youths at the
Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Since 1990 the Greater Los Angeles chapter of Habitat for Humanity has
built over 190 homes and provided basic housing needs for citizens in
the area.
The organization, formed in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, has rehabilitated
and built over 150,000 houses for low-income families all over the world.
One of the group’s most famous patrons is former President Jimmy
Carter, who believes that “with Habitat we build more than just
houses. We build families, community, and hope.”
HFH does not give away houses. Those who benefit from the program are
expected to work 500 man-hours (what the organization refers to as “sweat
equity”) in order to be eligible to receive a zero percent interest
mortgage. As the HFH mantra goes, “We offer a hand up, not a handout.”
- DOK
Don Keenan
Don Keenan has championed the constitutional rights of defenseless children
for over 25 years.
The Atlanta-based lawyer now heads Keenan’s Kids Foundation, a children’s
advocacy group founded in 1993 out of his law office. The walls of his
firm are lined with pictures of the dozens of kids that he has successfully
represented. The pictures “provide great motivation,” Keenan
said. “They’ve become the kids of the firm.”
A third-generation Irish-American, Keenan’s paternal great-grandparents
were from Dublin and his maternal great-grandparents hailed from Galway
and Mayo.
Growing up in Morehead City, North Carolina, Keenan had daily reminders
of the discrimination that his Irish great-grandparents faced. Downstairs
in the little basement room he used as a play area his grandfather J.
Don had stacked a number of anti-Irish signs such as “No Irish Need
Apply” which had hung on businesses in the Morehead City area.
His grandfather, who took care of Keenan since age two when his father
died in a boiler accident, had put the signs there to remind his grandson
that the good life he enjoyed came at a cost.
“It made me a fighter all my life,” Don says. “I was
never going to forget what people, black, Irish, Asian, whoever, went
through to make it in America.”
Keenan, now the most successful children’s advocate lawyer in America
and a regular guest on Oprah, Good Morning America and 60 Minutes, still
chokes up at the memory.
His fighting skills have served underprivileged and injured kids well.
Oprah gave him her “People Who Have Courage” award a few years
ago.
One of the pictures on Keenan’s office wall is of a smiling Kathy
Jo Taylor, just two years old, who was beaten to death by her foster parents.
Taylor had been placed in foster care despite the fact that members of
her family wanted to take her in.
Keenan represented the family pro bono and went all the way to the Supreme
Court where he won a famous victory. It came too late for Kathy but it
has helped save countless young lives since. The court ruled that the
law that mandated immediate foster care when both parents were found unfit
had to be changed and that family members had to have the opportunity
to take the child in. Incredibly, that was not the case at the time.
“In the 1980s children under the age of 18 had no constitutional
rights,” said Keenan, shaking his head. “Kathy Jo would be
alive today if they did.”
Shawn Huff, Executive Director of the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation
and a former foster care child himself, says simply, “Don Keenan
is a person who has rewritten the definition of what a hero is. His voice
has shone brightly for the voiceless children who don’t get heard.”
- NOD
 Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly was in the Super Dome in New Orleans on Sunday night, August
28, as Hurricane Katrina hit the city.
For the first day, he like many others thought the city had dodged a bullet.
He was the CEO of Catholic Charities, but since the organization is generally
not a first responder, he was there only as a volunteer. “We were
just moving people from loading docks into the Super Dome on Sunday afternoon
and Sunday night.”
By Monday, afternoon, he said, he could tell from the type of refugees
entering the dome that something had gone horribly wrong and the city
was rapidly flooding.
“They started rescuing people from the rooftops – that’s
when we knew the levees had broken,” he said. Parts of the roof
of the Super Dome had peeled off and you could see the sky, he recalls,
but the widespread horror stories that the media were starting to play
up about horrible behavior and crimes proved to be largely an urban myth.
On Tuesday, after 48 hours, he waded out of the Dome, and realized he
was going to have to mobilize New Orleans Catholic Charities for the most
massive relief effort in its history.
In the city, Catholic Charities runs the Second Harvest Food Bank. In
a normal year, they distribute 14 million pounds of food and water. Since
Katrina hit, the organization has distributed 40 million pounds of food
and water, and the needs keep coming. Catholic Charities also runs a home
for victims of domestic abuse, Crescent House, that burned to the ground
in the wake of the hurricane.
Kelly downplays any role as hero. “The real rescuers were the Coast
Guard and the National Guard, people who were pulling people off the rooftops,”
he says. “We were just a small part of the team, trying to do our
small part.”
But in the wake of Katrina, everyone became a first responder in one way
or another. Together they managed to move 325 frail elderly out of the
city on buses. “Everyone was doing whatever they could,” he
said. “We worked with the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, small black
churches.”
And as the city rebuilds, Catholic Charities is playing a crucial role.
Kelly says his dream is to “allow people to come home to this very
special place.” But rebuilding is excruciatingly slow.
“Six months after Katrina, it is still hard to comprehend the devastation,”
says Kelly, a married father of three. “Parts of town are still
totally deserted,” he said.
At its worst, the flood zone in Mississippi and Lousiana put an area equal
to the size of Britain under water. In New Orleans alone, the flood zone
covered an area larger than the city of Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, August 30, Kelly said he saw looting on Canal Street. It was
also his 48th birthday and it was not until months later that he realized
he had not marked it with the usual pomp and cake. “I thought I
was still 47,” he chuckles.
“We all could have done a better job,” says Kelly. “The
size of the disaster was absolutely amazing. Nobody had seen anything
like it before. Catholic Charities actually had to lay off 100 people
in the first few days after the storm but Kelly says most have been hired
back.
He said 90 percent of the African- Americans in the city lost their homes.
But he said the continuing disaster and the massive need to rebuild doesn’t
really register with people on a national scale anymore.
“I think it is impossible for people to understand the level of
devastation,” says Kelly. “It is unimaginable. They have to
come and see.”
One of the more heartbreaking scenes, he said, was a black middle-class
community in the city. The homes are uninhabitable, but in many cases
the residents have returned and tidied up and raked the lawn free of debris.
There is a certain pride of home, even when one can’t live in the
house.
Kelly was born in Albany, N.Y., the eighth of nine children, to James
R. Kelly and Ann Lansing Kelly. His family arrived from Ireland in 1840
or 1860 – his great-grandfather was a janitor in the cathedral in
Albany.
He graduated from Fordham in 1979 and went to work for IT&T, but he
spent only six months in the private sector. Kelly started volunteering
in Covenant House, the home for runaway kids in Times Square, New York.
He went from volunteer to full-time worker and began exporting Covenant
House to other cities. He established a New Orleans Covenant House in
1987.
In 2002, Kelly became CEO of Catholic Charities in New Orleans, which
traces its roots back 279 years when Ursuline nuns landed and set up their
first convent.
Catholic Charities is still sending out food and water through Second
Harvest. And through Operation Helping Hands, volunteers are helping to
rebuild the city. “We’ve had 1,500 volunteers so far and we
have another 3,000 scheduled,” Kelly said.
The goal is to clean 25 homes a week for the next three months. And Catholic
Charities is also trying to build 5,000 to 10,000 housing units in the
city. It is also supplying 200 counselors and case managers to the stricken
city, going door to door to check or setting up ten emergency service
centers. “We can spend the money as quick as we can raise it,”
he says.
Parts of the city remain deserted, its population scattered around the
United States. The city that had a pre-flood population of 475,000 is
predicted to have a population of only 275,000 three years from now.
“I believe it can come back, but it is going to take a long, long
time,” Kelly said.
Tom Moran
Tom Moran is a titan in both the business world and philanthropic circles.
He is chairman, president and CEO of Mutual of America, one of the country’s
preeminent life insurance companies serving health, education, humanitarian
and government communities. He is also chairman of Concern Worldwide,
an international humanitarian organization dedicated to the poorest people
throughout the world.
Moran became a friend to Concern Worldwide when it was largely unknown
in the U.S. His commitment grew from being a caring supporter to becoming
chairman of the organization’s U.S. operation. “Tom Moran
is a critical and vibrant link between American corporate caring and the
poorest communities who need help,” according to Fr. Aengus Finucane,
founder of Concern Worldwide.
“Moran’s high profile in the business world has been critical
to building up Concern Worldwide’s caring base in the U.S.,”
says Siobhan Walsh, the Executive Director of Concern in the U.S. “Tom
has given his time to travel to Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to understand
firsthand the impact of poverty and living on less than $1 a day. He is
committed to building bridges between the generous corporate community
and the very poor. His actions have resulted in children getting the opportunity
to attend school for the first time, health clinics being built for those
who cannot afford health services, credit and savings programs set up
to help families become more self sufficient – interventions that
make extraordinary differences to people’s quality of life.”
Moran also serves on the boards of many national charitable and civic
organizations. He is a member of the North American Board of the University
College Dublin Graduate School of Business and traces his Irish roots
to Counties Cavan and Tipperary. He lives in New York City with his wife
Joan.
 The Murphy
Family
Like most parents, the home of John and Jeanette Murphy is filled with
pictures of their beloved children. That’s a lot of frames when
you are Mom and Dad to a family of 27.
The Murphys, already the parents of four, have opened up their home to
23 children with Down Syndrome since adopting their daughter Shannon in
1983.
Despite their special needs, John and Jeanette strive to teach their brood
– ranging in age from 13 months to 34 years – independence,
teamwork and the skills necessary to grow into thriving adults, while
experiencing as normal a childhood as possible.
They school the young children at home and teach them sign language to
help them communicate. Afternoons and weekends are spent roller-blading,
hiking and taking field trips to the zoo. And they always find the energy
to make a home-cooked breakfast every morning.
The Murphys’ story began when John and Jeanette were volunteering
at a home for mentally handicapped adults. They came to believe that a
strong family environment might be beneficial for youngsters facing similar
handicaps. Later that same year, they were overjoyed to adopt Shannon.
The rest is family history.
This year the family featured in People magazine in August and also appeared
on CBS’ Early Show in November. The Discovery Channel shadowed the
family for a few weeks at the turn of the year, and a one-hour documentary
is scheduled for this spring. In January, the family received a big shipment
of clothing from Switzerland as a result of the People article.
The Murphys live in Atlanta and hope to add a new member to their family
very soon. Both John and Jeanette are 100 percent Irish and are extremely
proud of their heritage. John’s rich family history can be traced
back to Counties Wicklow and Wexford.
William O’Brien
In July 1957, Father William O’Brien, a young parish priest on
duty at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, was fatefully drawn
into the seamy world of drug abuse and crime. The mother of a gang member
frantically came to the priest for help when her son was accused of the
murder of a rival gang leader. O’Brien realized that the common
denominator in this, and most street crime, was drugs.
The prevailing attitude of the time was “once an addict, always
an addict.” Neither jail nor hospital stays seemed to make any difference,
so O’Brien started researching other ways of treating addiction.
In 1963, he founded Daytop, and he has guided it to a place where today
it is a model as a drug treatment, prevention and educational center throughout
the United States and in over 60 countries, including Ireland.
Father O’Brien, now Monsignor O’Brien, grew up in Tuckahoe,
New York, the son of an Irish immigrant father from Cork. His mother’s
side, the Tullys, came from Galway. In the 1980s he sent a number of young
Daytop staff members to Dublin to start Coolmine, the first Irish Therapeutic
Community for drug rehabilitation.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan’s celebrated “Just Say No”
campaign in the 1980s was inspired by a visit to Daytop and her meeting
with Father O’Brien.
At Daytop, positive peer interaction is emphasized in a highly structured
familial environment known as a Therapeutic Community. Within this milieu
Daytop offers an integrated holistic treatment regime, which is multi-disciplinary.
Medical, educational and other services have been added to treatment programs
to meet the needs of new populations. But Daytop has kept the basic tools
that proved successful so many years ago and adapted them to today’s
changing population. And Monsignor O’Brien still passionately presides
over this miracle of amazing change and growth flourishing at Daytop’s
treatment centers. - PH
 Kevin
O’Neill Shanley
In his vocation as well as in his scholarly pursuits, Father Kevin O’Neill
Shanley has stayed true to his Irish roots.
As a child growing up in New Jersey, Father Kevin listened to stories
of Ireland, told to him at the kitchen table by his Irish-born father.
Inspired by those tales, Father Kevin has spent his life writing about
Ireland and the Irish-American experience.
Father Kevin, who taught Irish history and literature at St. Xavier University
in Chicago for over fifteen years, is the founder and director of the
Celtic News Service, where he oversees the publication of an Irish-American
newsletter. He also wrote over three hundred “Tinker’s Damn”
columns for the Irish American News in Chicago.
Father Kevin’s loyalty to his Irish heritage is also apparent in
his work with the Irish American Cultural Institute. For over twenty years
he served as communications director for the Institute’s “Irish
Way” summer study abroad program. The program, now in its thirtieth
year, sends American high school students to Ireland every year for five-weeks.
Two weeks are spent participating in classes related to Irish art, literature,
music, dance and sports, and three weeks are spent in a home-stay with
an Irish family.
Father Kevin’s achievements don’t end there. He also served
as the editor of Carmelite Review and The Sword magazine and as book reviewer
for Catholic Explorer.
Currently Father Kevin lives in Darien, Illinois, where he teaches and
counsels at the Carmelite Spiritual Center. His most recent course, entitled
“From Famine to Fortune,” features lectures on the triumphs,
failures, pathos and exhilaration of Irish-Americans and includes videos
as well as personal insights.
On May 26, 2006, Father Kevin will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his
ordination as a priest. – BE.
Shelly Ann Quilty
Twenty-four hours in one day doesn’t seem to be enough in the hectic
life of Shelly Ann Quilty, who has won back-to-back Legal Aid Society’s
Pro Bono Awards for outstanding services to clients. She was recently
awarded the 2005 Gong for her ongoing work in helping low income New Yorkers,
and in particular, cases that deal with the rights of children and young
adults.
Born and raised in County Wexford, Quilty possesses an enviable educational
background. She attained a first class honors degree in Business and Economics
from Trinity College Dublin. Then she completed a Masters of Psychology
at Boston College and moved to New York.
After working as a case manager for the law firm of Cravath, Swaine and
Moore, she enrolled in CUNY to take a law degree. But she still found
time to help out the local community by providing pro bono assistance
to underprivileged families and in particular, adolescents in the foster
care system. One of the cases that affected her most was that of a 21-year-old
mother of two who was continually refused housing because of a minor infraction
when she was younger.
“My problems extended to worrying about going to work and getting
around the city, while that mother was constantly worrying about how to
house and cloth her children. When I thought of that it really hit home,”
said Quilty.
More recently Quilty spent several weeks performing voluntary legal work
in New Orleans and Mississippi, working with Hurricane Katrina victims.
If that wasn’t enough, in 2004 she also ran the New York City marathon
to raise funds for Donorschoose, a New York charity that provides resources
to students in public schools.
Long term Quilty hopes to work for the underrepresented and marginalized
children in society. She was recently awarded the New York University
Charles Revson fellowship, which honors first and second-year students
attending law school in New York and New Jersey. The fellowship provides
for a ten-week summer placement with public interest organizations in
the New York metropolitan area. – DOK
Michael & Colette Quinlin
No one has done more to promote Massachusetts’ Irish heritage than
Michael and Colette Quinlin. Michael is founder and president of the Boston
Irish Tourism Association (BITA), a group formed in 2000 specifically
to promote the state’s rich Irish history and culture year round
to the travel and tourism industry.
By combining quality Irish cultural activities with the state’s
hospitality amenities, BITA has created a positive Irish-American brand
that counteracts the often-shallow depiction of the culture.
The group has produced a variety of tourist materials, including the Boston
Irish Heritage Trail, Finding Your Irish Roots in Massachusetts, Irish
Massachusetts Travel Guide, and Irish Food & Culture Guide. Over half
a million pieces have been distributed through tourist kiosks, hotel concierges
and other visitor outlets in the region.
A former publisher, Quinlin imported and distributed over 300 titles on
Northern Ireland in the United States during the 1980s. He is the author
of Irish Boston (2004) and editor of Classic Irish Stories (2005), both
published by Globe Pequot Press, as well as Guide to the New England Irish
(1985-94). He served as Irish advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn and traveled
on the Clinton campaign in 1992. He is also spokesman for the Boston Irish
Famine Memorial committee.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Quinlin is married to Colette Minogue Quinlin,
his partner in BITA. A native of Borrisokane, County Tipperary, Colette
emigrated to Boston in 1991 after living in Sydney, Australia for several
years. With a background in hospitality and event management, she studied
web design at Northeastern University and the School of the Museum of
Fine Arts in Boston.
Colette manages numerous web sites for BITA, the Irish Cultural Centre
of New England and others. She also manages the design and production
of BITA’s publications and handles membership relations for the
group. The couple lives in Milton, Massachusetts and has two children,
Leo and Devin. –PH
 Brian Stack
For 74 years, CIE Tours International has been providing quality Irish
vacations to travelers from North America. In the seventeen years that
Brian Stack has been president and CE0, CIE Tours has grown into the single
largest generator of tourists to Ireland.
Long considered the best operator of Ireland tours, Travel & Leisure
magazine readers voted CIE Tours one of the top 10 tour operators in the
world.
Itineraries are filled with planned activities, but still include plenty
of time to pursue individual interests such as shopping, golf, walking,
and swimming. Not to mention stays at Ireland’s best hotels.
Dedication to flexibility in catering to all its customers’ needs
is one of CIE’s strongest virtues, and Stack makes sure it stays
that way.
Stack was born and educated in Dublin before leaving Ireland to go to
Salford College in England to study marketing. In 1977 he moved to New
York with the Irish Tourist Board where as East Coast Manager he specialized
in the promotion of convention and incentive travel to Ireland. In 1984
he was appointed VP of sales and marketing for the Ocean Reef Club in
Key Largo before joining CIE Tours as president and CEO in 1989.
As well as its first-class escorted Ireland and England tours, this year
CIE will add Italian tours to their portfolio.
Stack is confident for the company’s future. “Our biggest
challenge is to continue growing. Every one of our 74 years has seen us
grow and the challenge is to keep that going. I believe that there is
huge potential in Ireland for tourism and so far we have only scratched
the surface,” he says.
In addition to running CIE Tours, Stack plays a prominent role in the
Irish-American community. He is the vice president of the Ireland-U.S.
Council for Commerce and Industry, and is on the boards of the Irish American
Cultural Society and The Travelers Conservation Foundation. He is married
to Ann-Marie and the couple has two grown children, Annalise and Jonathan.
– DOK
For more information on CIE Tours, check out www.cietours.com.
Tom Westman
Unlike some other Survivor winners, Tom Westman is in the press for all
the right reasons. His success since he won the reality series has been
well documented in this magazine, but it is how he has used his fame to
benefit the greater community that is most impressive.
Long before Survivor, the million-dollar win, the Caribbean Joe Clothing
contract and being on TV Guide’s Sexiest Men List, Westman was always
aware of his civic duties and actively gave back to the community. He
has been involved with The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the deaf
and hard of hearing for some time.
Westman’s daughter Meghan lost her hearing after getting pneumococal
meningitis, but thanks to a Cochlear hearing implant she received at 20
months she has been able to lead a normal life. Westman has increased
his role as a spokeperson for AG Bell and recently was keynote speaker
at a Cochlear Convention in Florida.
Westman also has a long relationship with Disabled Sports USA, an association
that provides sports rehab programs to anyone with a permanent disability.
As he puts it, “This group reached out to me and helped my daughter.
I can never repay the kindness they have shown or the inspiration they
have provided.” He has certainly tried, and in 2001 Disabled Sports
USA recognized his efforts in helping the disabled. He regularly volunteers
as a ski instructor and he has been helping disabled veterans to take
up adaptive skiing.
He again used his increased public profile to good effect when last October
he participated in a Marine Corps celebrity golf tournament in Camp Lejeune,
North Carolina. “That event raised money to support returning veterans
who have suffered life changing-disabilities,” he told Irish America
at the time.
Though he recently retired from the Fire Department of New York City,
he continues to support his fellow firefighters. Recently he was keynote
speaker at the International Association of Firefighters health and safety
conference in Honolulu. He also supports the Thomas Elsasser Fund, which
raises funds for families of N.Y.C. firefighters who died.
A proud Irish-American, Westman enjoys Irish roots on both sides, with
his mother’s family coming from Clonbur, County Galway while his
dad’s clan hail from Waterford. Married to Bernadette, the couple
has three kids, Declan, the aforementioned Meghan and Conor. - DOK
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