African American/Irish organization awards honors

[get these nets]

African American Irish Diaspora Network honors leaders at inaugural gala​

The African American Irish Diaspora Network's (AAIDN) inaugural Diaspora Leadership Awards Gala took place on Thursday, September 29 in Manhattan.​

Oct 12, 2022

Mary McAleese, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Dennis Brownlee, and Miriam Nyhan Grey at the African American Irish Diaspora Network's (AAIDN) inaugural Diaspora Leadership Awards Gala. Nuala Purcell

The Diaspora Leadership Awards Gala featured Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States Geraldine Byrne Nason, philanthropist Loretta Brennan Glucksman, and an enthralling dance performance by Tony Award winner Savion Glover.
Co-chaired by Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey and Keith Wright, the event honored four leaders with international reputations in social justice, scholarly excellence, business leadership, and advocacy:

• President Mary McAleese, the former president of Ireland and chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, who received the Frederick Douglass-Daniel O’Connell Social Justice Award;
• Henry Lewis “Skip” Gates Jr., Harvard University professor and executive producer of Finding Your Roots, who was awarded the AAIDN Inspiration and Vision Award;
• John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, who received the John Lewis-John Hume Leadership Award;
• Fionnghuala “Fig” O’Reilly, 2019 Miss Universe Ireland, NASA datanaut and executive director of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, who was awarded the AAIDN Heritage and Diaspora Spirit Award.

McAleese’s address was titled “Widening the Lens of History: A New Future from a Recast Past.” She said, “We do not revise history for the sake of it but forge new collaborations to tell it anew for the sake of truth, inclusion, equality in our time – to right the record, to right the old catalog of wrongs, to repair where we can and take responsibility where we must. Above all to learn. And above all to heal. For there is much to heal.”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin praised the work of the African American Irish Diaspora Network's (AAIDN) and its founder and chairman Dennis Brownlee when he paid tribute to the honorees via video from Dublin.
Among the notables in attendance were CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, and authors Kia Corthron and Colum McCann. New York University, University College Dublin, Notre Dame University, Sacred Heart University, and Quinnipiac University were all represented, as were the diplomatic corps of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The AAIDN’s mission is to foster relations between African Americans and Ireland based on shared heritage and culture.
Proceeds from the event support initiatives to develop scholarship opportunities in Ireland and at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as well as activities that amplify the artistic and cultural dynamism of the African American and Irish artists. The AAIDN also supports the Black, Brown, and Green Voices program which originated at New York University in 2019.

 

[Yehuda]

When Ali thrilled Ireland: How 'the Greatest' shook up Dublin

Remembering the memorable week Muhammad Ali spent in Ireland in 1972.

www.bbc.com

As soon as he got off the plane at Dublin Airport, Ali, ever the showman, immediately captured the heart of a nation by announcing that he had Irish roots.

Between 1850 and 1880, 100,000 people left Ireland for north America. One such emigrant was Abe Grady who left his native Ennis in County Clare sometime in the 1860s. In Kentucky, he met and married an emancipated slave. A century later Abe Grady's great grandson Muhammad Ali touched down in Dublin.

Ali training in Ireland ahead of his fight at Croke Park

In the week leading up to the fight, as was typical of the man, Ali met people from all walks of life in Dublin.

He spent time with celebrities, including actor Peter O'Toole and playfully sparred with director John Huston, whose boxing movie, Fat City, was screened with both Ali and Lewis in attendance.

He also met politicians, including Taoiseach Jack Lynch in Leinster House, and political activist Bernadette Devlin.

The Cork Examiner newspaper commented on how popular Ali had proven with politicians in Ireland.

"Not since the late President John F Kennedy was in Dublin in 1963 has a visitor from abroad been given as big a welcome at Leinster House as that accorded to Muhammad Ali," the newspaper said.

As the tales continued to grow of Ali's week in Ireland, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction.

There are a number of stories about him spending time with everyday people, stopping in for tea with an elderly lady and having a lengthy chat with a road sweeper outside Croke Park. (...)

Ali recorded an advertisement for the Irish tourist board extolling the virtues of the Emerald Isle, but remarking on "how rough" hurling and Gaelic football were, and so he thought he would stick to boxing!

Ali had an innate ability to empathise with people wherever he found himself.

This empathy was in evidence during a memorable interview he gave that week to RTE's Cathal O'Shannon, comparing the Troubles in Northern Ireland with the US civil-rights struggle.

The interview caused a stir in America as Dave Hannigan explained: "What was interesting to me is that some of the American hacks at the time tried to paint a picture that Ali's presence in Dublin brought peace to the north for a week!

"The truth is it was one of the bloodiest weeks ever in Northern Ireland. But, in newspaper interviews and in the recollections of those around him, Ali was very aware of the situation in Northern Ireland and what was going on there."

For Hannigan, the social impact of the visit was encapsulated in one encounter in Dublin's O'Connell Street.

"He was walking down O'Connell Street in Dublin with groups of kids following him chanting 'Ali! Ali! Ali!'

"At a time when Dublin was one of the whitest cities in Europe, this icon comes along and is welcomed so warmly that some in Ali's entourage say that the reception he received compared only to two other places - Atlanta and Harlem!" (...)

In 2009, Ali returned to Ireland to visit Ennis in County Clare, the home town of his ancestor Abe Grady, where he was granted the freedom of the town.

The huge crowds who came out to meet him were testament to his enduring appeal.

But the magic of Muhammad Ali left an indelible impact on Ireland after his 1972 visit as the late Budd Schulberg, a legendary boxing writer, said.

"Ali was like the Pied Piper. It was really kind of magical. He had enormous influence over there. He was a fellow Irishman."