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(For the best experience of this podcast, visit: https://www.CenterPieceNY.com) New York Irish Stories: the lives of long-standing members of New York's Irish community, in their own words. And for a small country like Ireland - such a diversity of accents! Stay in touch @CenterPieceNY - we'd love to hear from you! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate and Review ! Episode schedule: one published per month, towards month end. Creator/Producer/Presenter: Paul Finnegan @paul_NY . Logo by @muireannlalor
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Linda Bonnar is a successful life coach and entrepreneur. She's also a former educator, and has built her services around both her experiences in the teaching profession, and her teenager years with mental health struggles in her hometown of Ballinasloe in County Galway in Ireland. During those fragile, formative years of her childhood she had the …
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S3E9: Jennifer Muldowney, a Heart Grows Bigger
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1:08:51
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Jennifer Muldowney, from Dublin’s fair city, in Ireland, is an author, a podcaster, and a member of that exclusive set of people who has given a TED Talk. But for this vivacious young woman, all these glamorous activities are in support of her unique, creative, small-ish, and growing business, which, not to put too fine a point on it, services the …
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S3E8: Denis Maguire, Life on the Peninsula
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56:54
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When it comes to experiences, life is an embarrassment of riches. Even more so, if you're an adventurous, wandering type, which might be another way of saying 'if you're Irish'. Certainly Denis Maguire is, although he has gone about it in his own quiet way. As a thoughtful playwright, flimmaker and artist, boisterousness is not for him. Raised in G…
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S3E7: Corina Galvin, Quiet Influencing
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1:05:56
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Corina Galvin calls County Mayo in Ireland her home. She's also been a New Yorker for almost three decades. And she has accumulated a lot of frequent flyer miles along the way. That's because her job in event planning and management puts her constantly up in the air, traveling all over the globe, meeting some significant influencers in the process.…
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S3E6: Jane McCooey and her Band of Sisters.
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Jane McCooey thrives when she’s bringing people together to solve a problem, to the benefit of all. When Jane, from County Armagh in Ireland, is confronted with obstacles, she’s not afraid to reach out for help, and her first port of call is often to tap into the familiar power of sisterhood. Before you know it, she’s fallen in with a band of siste…
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S3E5: Niall O'Leary–A Life By, And Of, Design.
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57:39
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Niall O'Leary is best known as a performer of Irish dance in the New York area, and further afield. A lesser known fact about Niall is that he also has his own Manhattan-based architecture practice. The amazing thing about Niall is how he has managed to satisfy his innate need to create and design in these two very disparate disciplines. To him the…
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'Tis the festive season, and as yet another year ends, a time for self-reflection. So we thought we'd take a moment this Christmas to have a closer look at this podcast, delivered in the words of creator, producer and host Paul Finnegan, to explain why he does it, and to give you a walk-through on how he goes about doing it. We hope you'll find it …
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S3E3: Ray O'Hanlon, Stringer of Pearls
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Ray O'Hanlon is a long-standing journalist, author and editor of the weekly Irish Echo news service, which has been a pillar of the Irish American identity since 1928. That's a stretch coming up on 95 years, and Ray has been with the Echo for more than one third of that time! Ray sees his work as stringing together elements, pearls he calls them, o…
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S3E2: Helen McNamara O'Shea, Healer at Heart.
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In this episode, Helen McNamara O'Shea tells us of the brave leap she made from a career as an accomplished doctor to that of a singer/songwriter. Given that Helen describes herself as 'ancient', which she is not by any means, it seemed, on the face of things, a switch that didn't make a whole lot of sense. But that's on the face of things, because…
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County Cork, on Ireland's southern shore, is its biggest county, bigger than all the rest, all thirty one of them. Corkonians, as the people of Cork are known, are intensely proud of their heritage. They often claim, in all sincerity, that Cork City, not Dublin, is the true capital of Ireland. And they might be right. One need only ask the British …
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Season Three Introduction: A Conversation with John Lee.
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21:19
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Season Three kicks off with a short conversation between CenterPieceNY host, Paul Finnegan, and fellow New York Irish podcaster, John Lee, to preview what's ahead. Check out Irish Stew, the podcast for the Global Irish Nation, co-hosted by John and Martin Nutty. ========================================== Thanks to Purple-Planet for Intro/Outro musi…
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S2E10: Eamon Harkin-This Is The Only Time We Live In.
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Here in the tenth and final episode of Season Two, we get to know Eamon Harkin, originally from Derry in Ireland, who has achieved celebrity in the world of DJs, and is taking dance culture and its community to a whole other level in Queens, the biggest borough in the city, and one that is not so outer-borough anymore. Eamon’s story takes us from t…
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S2E9: Amy Brett-The More Things Change...
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Amy Brett is a passionate and skilled event planner, an avid Gaelic footballer and a powerful fundraiser for great causes. And she's all 'Mayo for Sam', red and green, through and through. Based in Sunnyside, Queens, she's having the craic in New York. For many from previous generations, that's a familiar tale. The more things change, the more they…
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S2E8: Claire McGovern and her Soft Power.
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Claire McGovern is a sustainable interior designer, art advisor and manufacturer, whose recent work uses Irish wool as its basis, a textile she has come to see as a 'miracle fiber' and after listening to this episode you'll think so too. Claire spent her formative years in a small enclave in south Dublin called Dartry, nestled between the more well…
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We're taking a slightly different approach in this episode. We've gathered some thoughts and memories of several centerpieces, but the centerpiece of their lives in New York was, for a few years, a decade ago, a thing called 'The Computer Club'. The reason we are doing this now is because one of us, Paraic, had to leave the stage this month, and we…
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S2E6: Martin Nutty, the Pensive Podcaster.
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1:10:16
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Martin Nutty, all 6 foot 4 inches of him, burst onto the global Irish community scene in 2020 when he fetched up alongside the previously-minted local New York Irish community celebrity John Lee, to stand up the innovative Irish Stew podcast. From the throes of the pandemic in 2020 to the current reemergence, he and John have roped in dozens of ama…
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S2E5: Shelley Ann Quilty-Lake, the Unapologetic Advocate who Belongs.
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They say that diversity is being asked to the dance, while inclusion is being asked to dance, but belonging is hearing your music play at the dance. To belong is a fundamental human need, but the road to true belonging continues to be a long one for many in the US. Shelley Ann Quilty-Lake, or simply Shelley, devotes her day, and her life as a lawye…
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S2E4: Breda Skeados and the Baker's Dozen
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Breda Skeados is the middle child in a family of thirteen siblings from the rural West of Ireland, all born in a twenty-year period between the 30s and 50s. Ten survive to this day. Even during that time, in her hometown of Dunmore, County Galway, families of this size were on the wane. In fact it was so remarkable, some smarty pants composed a rhy…
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S2E3: Sophie Colgan–Speaking Truth to Power
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Sophie Colgan is one of the finest examples of strong leadership on the rise today among the young in the Irish community of New York. Upon first arrival in the Big Apple in 2013, Sophie Colgan picked up on the background noise of goodwill that benefits all Irish people who come here, an almost universal feeling that has its origins in the aggregat…
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S2E2: Jacqueline Kealy - from Tuam to the stage lights of New York City!
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We know County Galway in Ireland has it share of towns (and a city!), each with their own character and traditions, but Tuam–along the northern edge of the county–stands apart in its creative take on the world. It is no surprise that such a free-thinking place, with its vibrant music and theatre scene, should produce an adventurous young lady like …
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S2E1: Adrian Flannelly - the Godfather of Irish talk radio in New York.
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So we're all podcasters nowadays, but what is podcasting but radio on demand ? In this episode we hear the story of one of the great radio pioneers among New York's Irish community, who is still standing and still broadcasting after 50 years, who was plying his trade when it required serious work and investment to do so: studio time, air time and a…
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Season Two Preview: A chat with Colm O'Regan
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To kick off Season Two, host Paul Finnegan sat down with well-known Irish comedian, author, broadcaster, MC and podcaster Colm O'Regan. Of course, the marvels of the Internet allowed both chairs to be separated by the Atlantic Ocean. The topic? This podcast itself, and podcasting in general. Have a listen... and keep an ear out for the rattle of a …
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S1E10: Peter and Bryan Fahy, and a tribute to Galway City.
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We have two guests this time around, young thirty-somethings and brothers, Peter and Bryan Fahy, originally from Salthill in Ireland's Galway City, who came to live in New York just only in the last ten years, but are in the States now for the long haul. But we also have a third guest: the City of The Tribes itself–we are taking a deep 'Blackrock' …
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Legalizing the Irish. In the days before Monday October 14th 1991, thousands converged on a post office in Merrifield, Virginia. They had come from throughout the United States and represented countries the world over. They all had one thing in common. They were undocumented immigrants, and by being there, at that post office in Virginia, at that t…
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Dubliner Susan McKeown has made a career in music. This is no small feat, and tells us she is an accomplished singer and innovative songwriter. And now, through the Cuala Foundation, she's become a social entrepreneur in the arts. And when you add to the mix that she is also a mother who single-handedly raised her daughter, you're learning about so…
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Pat Lally is a Galwayman. He hails from the county in Ireland that is the second largest of that country's famed set of thirty two. And that county is Galway. County Galway is named for Ireland's famous, most western city, Galway City, which sits on the shores of beautiful Galway Bay, itself famed in song, with the Aran Islands strung across its en…
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Few neighborhoods, if any, in New York City have gone through as many upheavals over the last 60 years, as has Bushwick in Brooklyn. For an area that covers a mere two and a half square miles, the sea-changes it has witnessed during this period, both economic and demographic, have been massive. And its residents have lived through times of great ur…
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Perhaps it came about from the confines of her upbringing, and the little say she had in decisions that greatly affected her life, but Peggy Cooney has a rebel's soul. And as with all the rebellious, she has come to negotiate the world on her terms only. Peggy who has turned 90 years of age in the midst of our great pandemic, was raised in County M…
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John Houlihan is a native of Ringsend, a fishing village in Ireland, absorbed long ago into the great city of Dublin, the nation's capital. But Ringsend still retains its unique customs and traditions, and a flavor of a Dublin of a by-gone era, which John exemplifies. John came to America in 1970, and has made his home among the Italians of Bensonh…
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John McGurrin was a mere lad of twelve years when his family upped stakes in his native County Cavan, Ireland, and headed for New York, unlike many Irish immigrants who arrive on the shores of the United States as young, single adults. It was 1955 and he had his whole life ahead of him, a life that brought him and his family great tragedy and hards…
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Our very first episode! Though still a teenager, Helen Ward left her small village in rural County Longford, Ireland, in 1960, to come to New York. Now a mother, a grandmother, and a widow, living in the traditionally Irish neighborhood of Woodside, Queens, she has led a full life, with its share of ups and downs, including one very traumatic famil…
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Like many a man before him, Michael Doherty left his home in Ireland, and followed his brother to New York, in search of a steady wage. What he hadn't figured on was the big down payment he'd have to pay to America soon after arriving in New York, to prove his commitment to his new country. Within months of his arrival, Mike was drafted by the US m…
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We will be dropping our first couple of full episodes in the run up to Thanksgiving (that's before November 26th, for those of you who do not live Stateside). In episode 1, we'll be talking with Helen Ward, a great lady who came to New York in 1960, and who has led a remarkable life since. In episode 2, Mike Doherty, from South Armagh, tells of his…
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